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Report: FBI Wiretapped Paul Manafort Before and After Election

Obtained warrant after “observing unusual ties” between Russia and Trump associates.

U.S. investigators wiretapped former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort before and after the 2016 presidential election, CNN reports. The FBI is said to have begun monitoring Manafort’s communications in 2014, as part of an investigation into his work for Ukraine’s former ruling party, but later stopped monitoring him and was not wiretapping him when he attended a June 2016 meeting with Donald Trump Jr. and a Russian lawyer. The FBI obtained a new warrant to wiretap Manafort in August 2016, in connection to what it believed were unusual ties between Trump associates and Russia, CNN reports. That second warrant reportedly extended at least into early 2017, during which time Manafort and President Trump were allegedly still communicating, against the advice of Trump’s legal team, according to CNN. It is unclear whether the FBI intercepted any conversation between Manafort and Trump.