Manafort Calls On DOJ To Release His Intercepted Communications With Foreigners

Daily Caller ^ | 09/19/2017 | Chuck Ross

[SeekAndFind]

Former Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort is calling on the Justice Department to release transcripts of any intercepted communications he may have had with foreigners.

Manafort, a longtime Republican political consultant, also called on the Justice Department’s inspector general to investigate the leak of details of secret surveillance warrants obtained by U.S. investigators.

“Mr. Manafort requests that the Department of Justice release any intercepts involving him and any non-Americans so interested parties can come to the same conclusion as the DOJ — there is nothing there,” Manafort spokesman Jason Maloni said in a statement.

On Monday, CNN reported that investigators obtained a Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) warrant against Manafort prior to the presidential election. The wiretapping continued into early this year, according to CNN’s unnamed sources

It is unclear whether the warrant was obtained before or after Manafort left the Trump campaign in August. According to CNN, the surveillance on Manafort, who has a residence in Trump Tower in New York, picked up conversations he had with Russian operatives about the election.

That was the second FISA warrant obtained by investigators against Manafort. The FBI also conducted surveillance on the longtime Republican operative during a 2014 investigation into his consulting work for a Ukrainian political party. That surveillance reportedly ended without charges being followed prior to Manafort joining the Trump campaign last May.

Manafort is currently at the center of a sprawling investigation being conducted by Special Counsel Robert Mueller.

That probe began as an inquiry into possible collusion between the Trump campaign and Russian government, but Mueller appears lately to have focused on Manafort’s business dealings. Mueller conducted an early-morning raid on Manafort’s Virginia residence at the end of July. The New York Times reported on Monday that Mueller, a former FBI director, told Manafort that he will be indicted.

Whether or not Manafort committed a crime — and he has not been charged with anything — the leak of information about FISA warrants is a federal crime, Maloni noted in his statement.

“If true, it is a felony to reveal the existence of a FISA warrant, regardless of the fact that no charges ever emerged,” Maloni said.

Information about FISA warrants is classified and tightly held by government officials and the federal judges that approve them. Unauthorized disclosures of FISA information is also a felony.

At a House Intelligence Committee hearing in March, then-FBI Director James Comey testified that the leak of FISA information is punishable by up to 10 years in prison.

In his statement, Maloni called on the Justice Department’s watchdog to “immediately” open an investigation into the leak and to “examine the motivations behind the previous Administration’s effort to surveil a political opponent.”

Trump’s Justice Department has recently ramped up its efforts to get to the bottom of a spate of classified leaks. Attorney General Jeff Sessions and Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein are overseeing the effort, which includes a task force involving FBI agents.

The Justice Department did not respond to a request for comment about the Manafort leak.

[DoughtyOne]

Thanks so much for your support to this point... I personally apprecaite it...
FReepers, what the hell?  It's far beyond time to wrap up this FReep-a-thon.  Lets do it...

President Donald J. Trump and the Free Republic of the United States of America
President Donald J. Trump's address to the United Nations on 09/19/2017.

Ramirez political cartoon: United and Undaunted LARGE VERSION 09/19/2017: LINK  LINK to regular sized versions of his political cartoons (archive).
Garrison political cartoon: United and Undaunted LARGE VERSION 09/19/2017: LINK  LINK (scroll down) to regular sized versions of his political cartoons (archive).


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FReepers, 92.79% of the Third Quarter FReep-a-thon goal has been met.  Click above and pencil in your donation now.  Please folks, lets end this FReepathon.  Thank you!
...this is a general all-purpose message, and should not be seen as targeting any individual I am responding to...

Just $183.00 dollars and cents to 93.00%

[thinden]

Good plan

[Junk Silver]

I hardly consider a corrupt administration abusing the nation’s intelligence services and shredding the constitution to spy on the opposing party’s election campaign to be “nothing there”.

There sure as hell is something there, and Barack Obama, Susan Rice and a lot of other people should be in prison right now because of it.

[hardspunned]

Sleepy Sessions is hoping answers as to who is leaking will come to him in a dream.

[odawg]

Won’t happen. Mueller has to keep the charade going.

[lee martell]

Maybe Hope Hicks knows someone who can be sent directly to Atty. Gen. Sessions office and confirm that he has indeed been informed of the situation, while awake.

[atc23]

To quote another FReeper:

None of this would be happening if Jeff Sessions were still alive

[gaijin]

This is getting in the way of the CAPSTONE of my career...

The D.A.R.E. program..! And you are risking MOST of my cocktail party invitations.

And I will not even TELL you how many people from the UN are calling me, complaining about that UNDIGNIFIED man..!

[M-cubed]

Attorney General Jeff Sessions and Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein are overseeing the effort, which includes a task force involving FBI agents. <<<

I rest my case your Honor!!

[gaijin]

Paul Manafort

[bobrlbob]

Like a boil, things are coming to a head.

[Sarah Barracuda]

The whole Russia nonsense was a concoction from the beginning by Obama and his cronies to be used in case Hillary Clinton lost..they KNEW Trump and his team had ZERO collusion with Russia but the Obama Administration made up the whole narrative so they could get a warrant to spy on them..just imagine for one second, if George W Bush in 2008 had spied on Obama and his cronies what the leftist media would have said, there would have been riots in the streets

[Lady Heron]

The Trump team are destroying the conspiracy by getting all information out to the public and not allowing the media to spend months on propaganda like when the son released the emails to the public. Much media whining ensued.

They are countering the conspiracy with openness....totally destroys the narrative.

[Mears]

“That surveillance reportedly ended without charges being followed prior to Manafort joining the Trump campaign last May. “

---

What does this mean?

.

[jjotto]

http://www.politico.com/story/2017/09/02/obama-trump-tower-wiretap-no-evidence-242284

...”Both FBI and NSD confirm that they have no records related to wiretaps as described by the March 4, 2017 tweets,” the government said, referring to the Justice Department’s National Security Division.

James Comey, who was FBI director at the time Trump made the statements, also said, in sworn testimony before Congress, that neither the FBI nor the Justice Department had information to support the tweets...

...“The FBI and Department of Justice have now sided with former Director Comey and confirmed in writing that President Trump lied when he tweeted that former President Obama ‘wiretapped’ him at Trump Tower,” said Austin Evers, executive director of American Oversight...

[piasa]

Catching leakers involves leaving juicy bits of gossip and other interesting material where it can be seen by suspected leakers to see if they take the bait- this means the “most alarming” stories we keep seeing in the press and that frequently turn out to be fake are most likely derived from tempting bait left out by leak hunters that various leakers have bitten on and forwarded to the press.
If you are looking to press charges against said leakers you also need to catch them knowingly leaking what they believe is or what actually is classified material.

[Widget Jr]

Exactly. Now the news can’t say Manafort is trying to hide anything.

[Ol' Dan Tucker]

What does this mean?

There's no 'there' there.

The reason why we're not hearing about any details of 'collusion' between the Russians and Trump is there were none.

If there was, Mueller would have already leaked it and the fake news media would have reported it.

Awfully quiet, isn't it?

[karnage]

Political jiujitsu!