man afford under surveillance cNN has learned that investigators wiretapped
former Trump campaign Chairman Paul Manafort under secret court order both
before and after the 2016 election and that surveillance continued into this
year including a period when mana fort wasn't working for the campaign but was
known to talk with President Donald Trump Pamela brown Evan president
shamone pro-q PES broke this story and they are out front tonight so much to
ask all of you as this break so Evan let's just start off with the bottom
line here what are you learning tonight well Aaron sources tell us that the FBI
got permission from the secretive Surveillance Court to monitor Paul
Manafort the former Trump campaign chairman before and after the election
now this is an extraordinary step for the FBI to do surveillance on a
high-ranking campaign official and of course Manafort is now at the center of
the Russia meddling investigation we're told that there are intercepted
communications that raise concerns about whether Manafort was encouraging the
Russians to help with the campaign now other sources told us that this
intelligence was not conclusive enough Robert
Special Counsel Robert Muller's team has been provided all of these
communications Aaron so even when you say encouraging manna for encouraging
Russians to help with the campaign obviously the weight of everything is on
that word encouraging what do you mean by it right there's a lot we don't know
about exactly what was said am i worried this is beyond just wiretap it's also
surveillance of all kinds including searches that the FBI is authorized to
do but we're told that the FBI has communications between suspected Russian
operatives relaying what they claimed were discussions with Manafort as well
as communications involving Manafort none of this has amounted to what people
consider a smoking gun in this investigation there's still more work
being done to determine whether there's a criminal violation here we didn't get
a comment from Paul Manafort spokesman but Manafort has previously denied that
he ever knowingly communicated with Russian intelligence operatives during
the election he's also denied helping Russia undermine the US interests Aaron
so Pamela you're reporting here that Paul Manafort has been monitored
once but twice that's right Aaron so our team is told that the secret order began
after mana four became the subject of an FBI investigation in 2014 we previously
reported that centered on work done by a group of Washington consulting firms for
Ukraine's former ruling party our sources say and the surveillance was
discontinued at some point last year for lack of evidence according to one of the
sources and then the FBI restarted the surveillance after obtaining a new FISA
warrant that extended at least into early this year
the sources say the second warrant was part of the FBI's efforts to investigate
ties between Trump campaign associates and suspected Russian operatives now it
is unclear when that new warrant started and as part of the the FISA warrant
we've learned Aaron that earlier this year the FBI conducted a search of a
storage facility belonging to Paul Manafort and as you'll recall this past
July under Robert Muller's direction the FBI raided his home in Virginia and of
course we knew that but as part of what you're breaking tonight
that that rate of the storage facility obviously new information we know he had
a storage facility until this hour and we didn't know that they had raided it
so that's also very significant shamone do you know though whether
President Trump spoke to manna fort while he was under surveillance that of
course could be crucial here as well yeah exactly our an extremely crucial
but what we do know and what we've been told by sources is that the president
and Manafort were still talking earlier this year well after the campaign and it
is a time that we've learned the FBI was listening to manna firts phone calls so
it is possible that those phone conversations were collected during that
surveillance as they were listening to them so that we don't have a specific
answer for but it is possible Aaron all right which is a crucial point and of
course the President had said vocally again and again that he was wiretapped
and that he meant that to mean not just phones but all kinds of surveillance was
he right well not exactly so we do know that you know and the Justice Department
has spoken out about this and they have denied that the president's own lines
were tapped were wiretap but as we said it is possible that he was picked up on
Manafort surveillance we should know that madam for
does have a residence in Trump Tower but it is not clear if the FBI did
surveillance on madam Ford at Trump Tower
so so Pam what does this mean all of this for the Moller investigation as you
and Evan point out he now is in possession of whatever came from this
this this wiretap right he is in possession it is in his hands and the
PAS man afford investigation has been really the most visible investigation
under Robert Muller the Special Counsel started in May and and there we know
that there is a raid on his storage facility before Robert Miller took over
but then you have that raid this past July it's unclear if those stemmed from
any of the intelligence that was gathered under the FISA warrant but it
is clear that investigators are still very interested in de Paul Manafort
under the direction of Robert Muller Aaron and having a couple questions here
a one obviously manna fort for some time with all of this focus I'm sure has been
careful in what he says and how he communicates but but do you know if this
surveillance is still ongoing in any way and what is the significance that they
were able to get this crucial FISA warrant to do it well we don't know
exactly when the the timeline of the surveillance whether it has ended
whether it is continuing to this day but look the fact that they were able to get
a FISA warrant is a big deal the fact is this has to get approval from the
highest levels of the Justice Department and the FBI before agents can carry out
this type of surveillance it's considered so intrusive that you almost
never find out that these FISA warrants are authorized Aaron and then the other
thing is that you have to present proof or suspicions that someone is acting as
an agent of a foreign power all of this goes into providing the paperwork that
these judges then have to approve before allowing the FBI to do this type of
surveillance it's very intrusive work very interested working obviously very
not easy to get really hard to get as you all point out all right thank you so
much shamone evan Pamela