Quote (stimpy6298 @ 28 Aug 2017 19:11)

so what's new? I haven't seen one news article

Quote (sorceresslegend @ Aug 29 2017 04:58am)

Welcome to CNN, home of the nothing-burger.

Quote (stimpy6298 @ Aug 28 2017 04:11pm)

so what's new? I haven't seen one news article

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Washington (CNN)US investigators wiretapped former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort under secret court orders before and after the election, sources tell CNN, an extraordinary step involving a high-ranking campaign official now at the center of the Russia meddling probe.

The government snooping continued into early this year, including a period when Manafort was known to talk to President Donald Trump.

Some of the intelligence collected includes communications that sparked concerns among investigators that Manafort had encouraged the Russians to help with the campaign, according to three sources familiar with the investigation. Two of these sources, however, cautioned that the evidence is not conclusive.

Special counsel Robert Mueller's team, which is leading the investigation into Russia's involvement in the election, has been provided details of these communications.

A secret order authorized by the court that handles the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) began after Manafort became the subject of an FBI investigation that began in 2014. It centered on work done by a group of Washington consulting firms for Ukraine's former ruling party, the sources told CNN.
The surveillance was discontinued at some point last year for lack of evidence, according to one of the sources.

The FBI then restarted the surveillance after obtaining a new FISA warrant that extended at least into early this year.

Sources say the second warrant was part of the FBI's efforts to investigate ties between Trump campaign associates and suspected Russian operatives. Such warrants require the approval of top Justice Department and FBI officials, and the FBI must provide the court with information showing suspicion that the subject of the warrant may be acting as an agent of a foreign power.

It is unclear when the new warrant started. The FBI interest deepened last fall because of intercepted communications between Manafort and suspected Russian operatives, and among the Russians themselves, that reignited their interest in Manafort, the sources told CNN. As part of the FISA warrant, CNN has learned that earlier this year, the FBI conducted a search of a storage facility belonging to Manafort. It's not known what they found.

The conversations between Manafort and Trump continued after the President took office, long after the FBI investigation into Manafort was publicly known, the sources told CNN. They went on until lawyers for the President and Manafort insisted that they stop, according to the sources.
It's unclear whether Trump himself was picked up on the surveillance.

The White House declined to comment for this story. A spokesperson for Manafort didn't comment for this story.

Quote (IceMage @ 18 Sep 2017 19:43)

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NEW YORK (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump is using money donated to his reelection campaign and the Republican National Committee to pay for his lawyers in the probe of alleged Russian interference in the U.S. election, according to two people familiar with the matter.

The U.S. Federal Election Commission allows the use of private campaign funds to pay legal bills arising from being a candidate or elected official.

While previous presidential campaigns have used these funds to pay for routine legal matters such as ballot access disputes and compliance requirements, Trump would be the first U.S. president in the modern campaign finance era to use such funds to cover the costs of responding to a criminal probe, said election law experts.

One person familiar with the matter said the first payments, the amount of which Reuters could not determine, has already been made and would be disclosed in public filings. The person did not explain how the costs would be allocated between the campaign and the RNC.

The Republican National Committee is expected to make its August spending public on Wednesday, and the Trump campaign is due for another disclosure on Oct. 15.

John Dowd, Trump’s lead lawyer, declined to say how the president’s legal bills were being paid, adding: “That’s none of your business.”

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-trump-lawyers-exclusive/exclusive-trump-using-campaign-rnc-funds-to-pay-legal-bills-from-russia-probe-idUSKCN1BU2OS

Quote (IceMage @ Sep 19 2017 06:09pm)

:bouncy:

Quote (IceMage @ Sep 18 2017 05:43pm)

Quote (Goomshill @ Sep 20 2017 01:27am)

At this point, they're really raising the stakes for what happens if the Russia collusion story breaks apart without finding anything incriminating
spying on the former trump campaign manager, they better turn up something damning at this point or it will be watergate 2.0