Was Mueller raid on Manafort home an intimidation stunt?
Took documents Manafort already handed over.
I woke up to numerous alerts on my phone about an FBI raid on Paul Manafort’s home in connection to the investigation into possible Russian interference in our election. At first, it appeared that the raid happened this morning, but a deeper reading showed it occurred on July 26.
An even deeper reading showed that authorities didn’t make any huge discoveries. But the media can’t help itself when it comes RUSSIA. From The Washington Post:
Manafort has been voluntarily producing documents to congressional committees investigating Russia’s interference in the 2016 presidential election. The search warrant indicates investigators may have argued to a federal judge they had reason to believe Manafort could not be trusted to turn over all records in response to a grand jury subpoena.
It could also have been intended to send a message to President Trump’s former campaign chairman that he should not expect gentle treatment or legal courtesies from Mueller’s team.
Manafort’s spokesman Jason Maloni confirmed that Manfort cooperated with the search and handed over documents to the agents that are “working with special counsel Robert S. Mueller III.” The raid took place a day after Manafort met with the Senate Intelligence Committee.
Thing is, the agents departed with documents that Manafort already handed over to Congress:
“If the FBI wanted the documents, they could just ask [Manafort] and he would have turned them over,” said one adviser close to the White House.
Josh Stueve, spokesman for Mueller, declined to comment, as did Reginald Brown, an attorney for Manafort.
“Mr. Manafort has consistently cooperated with law enforcement and other serious inquiries and did so on this occasion as well,” said Maloni, the spokesman for Manafort.
Intimidation stunt? It’s possible. Those close to Manafort have expressed concern “that Mueller hopes to build a case against Manafort unrelated to the 2016 campaign, in hopes that the former campaign operative would provide information against others in Trump’s inner circle in exchange for lessening his own legal exposure.”
They may have a point. A few days ago, The Washington Post reported that Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein stated that Mueller “can investigate any crime” he sees during his investigation:
“The special counsel is subject to the rules and regulations of the Department of Justice, and we don’t engage in fishing expeditions,” Rosenstein said when asked about the probe in an interview on “Fox News Sunday.”
Rosenstein declined to comment on reports that Mueller is using a grand jury in a court in Washington to aid in his investigation but he said that such a step is a routine part of “many investigations.”
“It’s an appropriate way to gather documents, sometimes to bring witnesses in, to make sure that you get their full testimony,” Rosenstein said. “It’s just a tool that we use like any other tool in the course of our investigations. “
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Comments
Ya, I think Mueller was just beating the bushes, in the hope of forcing a revelation of wrong doing. He’s not the cleanest cop in town, so he feels obligated to find something.
You say Mueller is working for the Bushes?
Snark.
Another DemocRAT witch hunt a l a Valerie Plame and Scooter Libby.
typos in the headline.
“Was” –> “The”
“?” –> “.”
FTFY!
Looking forward to reading about the raids on the Clintons, Lois Lerner, and Debbie Wasserman Schultz….
You failed to add ” /s off ” after your comment.
…So Sad…but I couldn’t help myself from laughing…….
The ones being conducted h=now are being done on their behalf. That is, to draw attention away form them and onto others. The hope and goal is that by the time Congress is through all current investigations as well as the special counsel nobody will want to hear the term “investigation.”
Loretta Lynch, Samantha Power, Patrick Kennedy (this would be every player on the DC side of the aisle)
Yeah, WHEN WILL WE EVER SEE AN ACTUAL FELON arrested, prosecuted. Screw alleged, WE CAN read statutes !
I would love to hear that too. But what does reality portend to show us?
You’ll grow old looking for any Democrats to be raided.
I doubt anybody in the Trump administration can be intimidated by the FBI, and what would be the purpose of that anyway?
No, this was another public relations move by the agency, meant to create the public perception that Manafort had something to hide. That’s why it was especially dramatic for them to conduct the raid pre-dawn instead of just walking up to his door with a warrant at noon.
The raid was “late last month”. If it was supposed to be a PR exercise, the leak should have come much sooner.
Timing plays a lot in politics. Rush touched on this today.
There has been little recent news on the “Russia, Russia, Russia” thing, so they needed it back in the broadcasts to gloss over the NorK News
like i’ve said before Mueller’s looking for a scalp to hang on his belt just like Fitzgerald did in the Plame investigation.
After all the personnel and resources that will have been thrown at it, a scalp, anyone’s, is mandatory.
How about another special counsel to investigate Mueller?
In the build-up to the 2016 election, the polls were crooning and the leftists were swooning for Hillary, Hillary, Hillary. A sure thing.
Then, Trump won and the Left went insane. Rivers of leftist tears turned to rage as resist and Russia, Russia, Russia vomitted from their collective mouths.
Now, we got Mueller fishing up and down the Potomac for anything to end up in his wide net.
And years later, when Mueller only turns up an improperly reported campaign contribution, a bench warrant for unpaid parking tickets, and a stale ham sandwich, will the leftists go insane again and riot in the streets, or will their rage have exhausted itself because G. Soros hasn’t written them a check lately??
Hey, I need that check. I am fine if have to do a little phony demonstrating to get it! But I keep telling you guys that the check is signed by Emmanuel Goldstein.
Who is this G. Soros that you guys keep mentioning? Maybe I can get a check from him, too.
He is the same guy your side kept saying is the Koch brothers
When you argue with an idiot, you then have two idiots arguing.
Don’t bother.
They’ll probably get an indictment against that ham sandwich.
https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2203713
My opinion-
The job Robert S. Mueller III has been assigned is actually the first stage in the impeachment of Donald Trump. It is not a criminal investigation as there is no crime to investigate; Mueller is searching for a crime. Should one happen to be found, all and good, but his investigation’s unspoken task is to perform counterintelligence. He has been given zero constraints; He has unlimited scope and unlimited funds. His team may dig anywhere and any time, even into Trump’s childhood if he pleases.
All this information will be placed in a report and submitted to the House of Representatives. A few choice bits of info will undoubtedly be saved for future release should the need present itself.
JohnC: It is not a criminal investigation as there is no crime to investigate
The Russians illegally hacked the DNC, then violated U.S. sovereignty by interfering with the election.
Oh please.
The D.N.C. fell for a pfishing scheme that even a half witted 10 year old child would have avoided.
The Russians had nothing to do with it.
Let me play Devil’s Advocate here for a second.
I can see two squint-and-they’re-legit reasons for Mueller to do this. The most obvious is if Manafort has been turning over the originals of the documents while making photocopies for his own use (as I would *hope* anybody who turns over documents would be doing in any case), this would let Mueller’s team compare the two in order to determine if Manafort had selectively held any back.
The second is a dirty trick, although used far too frequently. If the raid takes *all* of the documents, Manafort is left with no way to verify what he says to the prosecution is correct, i.e. using a receipt from a dinner to verify the date of the meeting with person XYZ. This sets him up for a perjury trap, which an unethical prosecutor can use to squeeze him for deceptive or misleading testimony against Trump.
In any event, doesn’t a raid require a search warrant, sworn out in front of a judge, specifying the items sought AND identifying that the items would/will not be turned over voluntarily? That last part would be rather difficult to prove, but then again, I’m not a lawyer.
I’m not an attorney either. However, I do believe grand juries can issue subpoenas.
There are no unethical prosecutors. Every single person in prison is guilty. Oh, except for Mueller; and his reputation was squeaky clean until the dems did ……………….
His reputation might have been squeaky clean at some point, but not after lying to the House Judiciary Committee that there was an FBI investigation of the IRS scandal.
https://saboteur365.wordpress.com/2017/05/17/fbi-director-mueller-doesnt-know-anything-about-irs-investigation/
The article specifies that the Affidavit in the Application for a Search Warrant states the suspicion that Manafort has not/will not turn over all documents (presumably via use of the subpoena power and through Congressional Committee proceedings). IF true (i.e. no specificity as to that allegation), that a Magistrate/Judge bought this speculation is a bit of a surprise.
Answer..yes
Even the Drudge Report is going over the top with all of this. I’m close to boycotting Drudge, he’s becoming just another hyped up marketer.
I, also, have been wondering about Drudge. The power-that-be have been after him. Has he compromised himself? He’s been a bit too sensationalistic for me plus when he does the webpage in all blue I have trouble reading so pass it by.
Drudge is just feeling like another total gossip rag.
Righto; something of which we already have an excessive abundance.
Trump, you dummy, fire Mueller and Rosenstein now! And then Sessions, if he does not immediately un-redact the Lynch (Carlisle) documents. Do you have a death wish?
georgfelis
Those copies are in his file at his attorneys’ office. Any files in his house are just there for giggles.
Is this how our justice system works? One investigative body asks you for certain documents and you give them to it and then another agency raids your home? I don’t know anything about Manafort but this seems extremely unfair. If this is the technique then why bother with the “Asking” part and just go right to the door busting trick? I think Mueller may have gotten caught up in the Elliot Ness mentality but the difference so far is that there is no crime.
So he is seeking to “flip” Manafort for a nonexistent crime. Because only a fool believes Trump colluded with Putin. Just an examination of the “smoke” makes the entire matter ridiculous.
Technically Manafort broke the law by not declaring himself a foreign agent. Nobody has ever been prosecuted for registering late, but Meuller will threaten him. Manafort is a old hand at this and won’t panic whatever Meuller tries. I am surprised Trump Jr. wasn’t raided. I guess it’s still hard to get a search warrant without even the hint of a crime.
4chan is buzzing about secret arrest of Hillary and friends. Alternately, that Hillary has been offered a plea bargain. The two are not mutually exclusive.
Anyway, it’s fun to see fake news that you can use.
So Special Police conducting Secret raids..
1936 Germany? No USA 2017
Does anyone, including Paul Manafort, believe that he will spend even one day in a prison cell, even if some DC pro-Hillary federal jury convicts him of something?
Go ask Scooter Libby.
Manafort knew he was under investigation. He’s been a lawyer for a very long time. He certainly wouldn’t have incriminating documents in his home and Meuller knew it. Coming at dawn with a squad of FBI Agents was to intimidate him. I wonder when they will do the same for Trump jr. and what the President’s reaction would be?
Mueller does love his process crimes. They got Scooter Libby on a process crime but the FBI can’t seem to find any real crimes anywhere! Imagine that. I’m still wondering why we give the FBI billions of dollars a year, and for what? So they can leak made-up crap about republicans to newspapers and conduct intimidation raids?
Shut ’em down.
The more time that goes on without either firing Mueller or creating a special counsel to investigate obama, clinton, holder, wasserman schultz, the DNC, etc., the more fuss there will be in firing Mueller.
Mueller should be canned now, or create the counter special prosecutor. In fact, send Mueller packing the same day as McMaster.
He long ago offered to testify to congress and has nothing to hide. This is an effort to intimidate people from working on political campaigns much like the IRS hounding of 501C non profit tea parties.
This “raid” occurred during the height of the attempt to “get” Trump’s son for the meeting back in 2016. Manafort was there and is an easy target to attempt to turn into a witness hostile to Do. jr.
Look, nothing has changed here. Mueller is attempting to influence Trump by attacking his family. Nothing more.
When he assumed office, Trump clearly signaled the Dems and the Establishment that he would not pursue criminal investigations into HRC or her family or the Obama administration. And, he has honored that position. However, the Dems, and certain Obama interests, were pushing Trump on this Russia nonsense, as well as leaking sensitive information designed to embarrass him. The Trump administration made a point that continued attacks could result in official notice being taken of potentially illegal activities of the Obama administrations, such as the unmasking an leaking of the identities of US citizens. What should have happened was that the Dems should have backed off on the Russia nonsense. However, the war against Trump was stepped up. Nunez suddenly turned over the Russia investigation to his deputy, Sessions, who had recused himself on the Russia investigation, brings in Rosenstein who immediately asks Trump to fire Comey, thereby granting Comey additional protection, and appoints Mueller, a friend of Comey and long time Establishment man, to pressure Trump to ignore previous criminal wrongdoing by Establishment politicians. When Trump did not immediate collapse, Mueller begins targeting Trump’s family. Trump is the ultimate diplomat in this. he keeps signalling that he simply wants to left alone to pursue the agenda which the people elected him to pursue. And, the Establishment just will not listen.
The biggest problem, for the Establishment, is how Trump will respond, if it continues to pressure him. If he chooses, he can begin several public investigations into potential criminal violations by former members of Obama’s administrations. If that happens, there is no way to predict what the outcome will be. Impeaching Trump will likely lead to civil war.
“When he assumed office, Trump clearly signaled the Dems and the Establishment that he would not pursue criminal investigations into HRC or her family or the Obama administration. And, he has honored that position…”
Well, it goes to show us how little this gesture meant, and what a sucker Trump’s team was for accepting it.
Time to get tough again, Donald. Very tough.
Trump, and his team, are babes in the woods when it comes to DC politics. This is true. But, the man can learn and he learns quickly. If he reaches the point where he can not advance his agenda AND he, and his family, is being subjected to personal legal attacks, he is likely to respond with all the power of his office as well as the power of his constituents. I would hate to see what the results of that action would be. It would not be good for the country, at least in the short run.
We’ll just have to wait and see if the Establishment is willing to accept MAD to get rid of Trump.
Trump can’t launch any investigations. Sessions recused himself from investigating anything except for opioids and Rosenstein is part of the swamp. He would resign before helping Trump. There’s no one to order an investigation. Sessions has absolutely screwed Trump.
Actually, Trump CAN launch several investigations. Here’s how.
Sessions bailed on trump, on the Russia Collusion investigation and is using Rosenstein as his cut-out. But, Sessions did not recuse himself from Servergate, the Clinton Foundation investigation, illegal surveillance, illegal leaks and a myriad of other potential criminal investigations. In fact, since Trump expressed displeasure with the lack of investigative work product coming out of the DOJ, Sessions has found time to do illegal leak investigations, as well as MS13 arrests. If Sessions does not wish to follow the instructions of the President, then he can find a job selling used cars in Alabama.
Also, Trump does not have to wait for Sessions to initiate any investigation. He can so direct anyone in the FBI, or any other agency having jurisdiction in the matter, to investigate. All of these people work for him, after all.
The point is, Trump clearly signaled that he was willing to ignore certain previous activities of opposition politicians, in exchange for being allowed to attempt to pursue his agenda without having to deal with personal attacks. The Dems and the Establishment refused to accept that overture and now are rapidly pushing Trump to the point where he will be forced to respond through his office.
Sessions did not recuse himself from potentially investigating Obama/Holder (for F&F), Hillary (mishandling, illegal storage, and illegal retention of classified information; destruction of evidence; attempting to evade public records laws, etc.), the Clinton Foundation (play for pay), Lois Lerner, etc. Nothing is stopping him from investigating any of this except Trump’s declaration that it would not be investigated and the poor optics of launching what can be perceived as politically-motivated pay back (despite the very obvious criminality in which all of the above-mentioned players were involved). “Poor optics”, however, didn’t prevent Mueller’s appointment because the left never worries about optics, just objectives. A lesson should be learned here.
Folks, this is exactly the same tactics the Democrats used in the John Doe investigation in Wisconsin.
Illegitimate and illegal then and now.
Yep
Really? Expound for our edification.
People who play hardball should take great care to stay inbounds. I’m always astonished by arrogant lawyers who believe the law is the last resort. Meuller has two children.
There’s that strange ambiguity again.
Why don’t you TRY to plainly state what you mean?
The timing was too suspicious. Given that the search has been described as a predawn search which occurred the day after Manafort met with senate investigators, I bet one of two things happened.
Either one of the investigators leaked some piece of information to Mueller’s team which could be used against Manafort, or Mueller’s team saw that Manafort’s voluntary dealings with the senate investigators would cut off potential leverage they could use later to attack further upstream. Either way, I say again, the timing was too suspicious. In dealings like this, there are no coincidences.
The answer to the question asked in the title is yes.
I was a detective for a long time. This FBI/DOJ behavior for the last 8 years has been inexcusable. They can’t find probable cause for a search warrant when dealing with missing devices in the HRC/Cheryl Mills/Platte River fiasco, instead settling on asking them nicely and then getting devices missing SIM cards. Yet here they are executing a search warrant in pre-dawn hours???
Let me explain why you hit a target in the pre-dawn hours. There are only two reasons: 1. You want to catch them napping because they are armed and/or dangerous. 2. You want to send a message to the target you aren’t screwing around! Believe me, being woken at 0500 or earlier to the sounds of a banging announcement “FBI Search Warrant!” and then, while you are still getting your senses together to get herded around by the police is disorientating and very effective on the target’s mental state. Regardless if that target is a street level drug dealer or a rich white guy.
It shows them we disregard what they think or feel or care about. We…own…you…!
So that’s the reason for this raid. It is sad the FBI was unable to do one on HRC at her house, or Cheryl Mills (which probably contains evidence of crimes going back to the 90’s!).
No. There is a specific reason for APPLYING for a pre-dawn warrant service in addition to your No. 1, and it’s right there on the application form.
Which has to be supported with its own probable cause, apart from the probable cause for the search.
That is that there exists probable cause to believe that documents or other specifically named things in the warrant might be destroyed, hidden, etc.
So, while there MIGHT be abuse of this whole procedure, there’s simply no evidence to support it. Right now.