None. Manafort and Stone were not on Trump’s team since August in Manafort’s case and March (or earlier) in Stone’s case. Keep tryin, lefties.
The good news is the FBI and its agents would never plant or fabricate evidence to avoid be drained with the swamp. Would never happen.
Kelley Rogers, president of Strategic Campaign Group, said a half-dozen FBI agents arrived at his Main Street office at about 8:30 a.m. with a warrant to search and seize records.
An FBI spokeswoman confirmed the agency conducted "law enforcement activity" along Main Street in Annapolis but would not be more specific.
Agents on the scene, dressed in plainclothes, confirmed they were with the FBI but referred all other questions to a spokeswoman. They left the building shortly after 4 p.m., carrying files and a computer with them.
Rogers, whose firm has worked with campaign committees for Maryland Senate and House of Delegates candidates, said the FBI investigation concerns work the firm performed during the 2013 Virginia gubernatorial campaign of former Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli, a Republican.
According to Rogers, his firm settled a civil suit brought by the Cuccinelli campaign after the candidate lost the 2013 Virginia governor's race to Democrat Terry McAuliffe. Rogers said the investigation appears to stem from allegations brought in that suit.
The Cuccinelli suit alleged that Strategic Campaign Group and the associated Conservative Strike Force Political Action Committee — an independent group not affiliated with the candidate — raised about $2.2 million by assuring donors it would spend that money to help elect the GOP candidate. But the suit alleged the PAC and Strategic Campaign Group failed to follow through on promises of an extensive media campaign on Cuccinelli's behalf.
In the suit, Cuccinelli accused the firm of false advertising, breach of contract and unauthorized use of his name and image.
Cuccinelli said in a statement that he had not spoken to federal law enforcement officials about the consulting firm but is "curious" to see where the case goes.
"It was my hope when we brought our lawsuit to cast light on the dark practices of scam PACs. I think we did that successfully," Cuccinelli said. "Any cleaning up of these practices would be good for our political system."
Rogers praised the professionalism of the FBI agents and predicted the investigation would clear his name and that of the firm. "The truth shall set you free," he said. "I think it was frivolous then. I think it was frivolous now."
Rogers said agents arrived without notice and presented a search warrant. He said they took records and downloaded other information from the firm's computers.
FBI spokeswoman Lindsay Ram said the investigation is being conducted through the bureau's Washington field office, which has jurisdiction in the District of Columbia and Northern Virginia. She said agents from the office sometimes cross over into other jurisdictions when the entity they are investigating has offices in multiple locations. She declined to provide more details.
Another story from The Hill: FBI raids office of GOP consulting firm in Maryland
Strategic Campaign Group worked for Conservative Strikeforce, which was formed during the 2008 presidential election cycle and lists Scott B. Mackenzie as its treasurer. Dennis Whitfield, a senior advisor at Strategic Campaign Group, is chairman of the political action committee (PAC).
Whitfield has held many senior roles in Washington, including serving as executive vice president of the American Conservative Union (ACU), senior vice president at the National Federation of Independent Business (NFIB), and as chief of staff for the U.S. Trade Representative and as deputy secretary of the Labor Department during the Reagan administration.
However, critics labeled the Conservative Strikeforce a "Scam PAC" — a political action committee that raises large sums and spends very little on campaigns, candidates or the causes it espouses. All of that is totally legal, though, as there are no federal guidelines for how unaffiliated PACs ought to spend their war chests.
"At the Conservative StrikeForce PAC we are dedicated to replacing the Obama administration with a strong conservative willing to make the difficult decisions necessary to steer our country in the right direction," its website declares. The PAC "assists candidates in two ways. We make direct cash contributions and we do independent expenditures on behalf of selected conservative candidates whom we support."
From 2010 to 2016, Conservative Strikeforce raised $12 million, with only a small circle of firms receiving the cash. Strategic Campaign Group earned $579,000 from the PAC during that time, and the PAC spent more than $8 million on efforts to raise more funds. It gave $320,000 to state and federal candidates over the last seven years.
In 2014, Ken Cuccinelli, who had just waged a campaign for governor in Virginia, slapped the group with a lawsuit. The former Virginia attorney general alleged that it had used his name to fundraise without authorization. The PAC ultimately settled with the Republican politician, including paying $85,000 and handing over its distribution lists.
The Virginia lawsuit said Strategic Campaign Group is a part owner of the PAC, and Federal Election Commission (FEC) records show that the Conservative Strikeforce paid Strategic Campaign Group $10,000 in 2015 for "reimbursement for legal settlement."
Strategic Campaign Group's client list also includes a PAC called Conservative Majority Fund, which also lists Mackenzie as a treasurer.
It ran ads during former President Barack Obama's 2012 reelection campaign questioning the authenticity of Obama's birthplace and perpetuating claims that the president "is not who he says he is."
From 2012 to 2016, Conservative Majority Fund raised $8.4 million, and spent more than $3 million on its fundraising efforts during that time, according to records tallied by The Hill.
It spent roughly $13,000 on donations to campaigns in those four years, and paid the firm Infocision Management more than $7 million, according to both FEC records and the Center for Responsive Politics. Strategic Campaign Group, meanwhile, earned just less than $256,000.
Last November, the PAC donated $5,000 to President Trump's campaign, but FEC records show the check was returned without being cashed.
I read earlier that a donation from this company to the Trump campaign was returned to them, uncashed.