A court filing released Thursday reveals Special Counsel Robert Mueller still is issuing search and seizure warrants pertaining to Paul Manafort, the most recent of which the government obtained on March 9, 2018, and provides some new details about what properties and accounts authorities are searching.
Special Counsel Robert Mueller's office moved to seize bank accounts at three different financial institutions last year just one day before former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort was indicted, prosecutors disclosed in a court filing Thursday.
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On March 9, the special counsel's office obtained a search warrant for information related to "five telephone numbers controlled by AT&T," the prosecution said. It did not reveal who the numbers belonged to, although it said some information about the search was given to Manafort's defense on Wednesday, so presumably there is some connection to the veteran political consultant who held a top role in the Trump campaign for several months in 2016.
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The new filing by Mueller's team also confirms accounts that investigators obtained a warrant to search a storage locker belonging to Manafort, apparently somewhere in northern Virginia.
All the warrants listed by prosecutors Thursday remain under seal and off limits to the public, but new details in the latest filing indicate that the storage unit search took place in late May or early June, about two months before the FBI conducted an early morning raid on Manafort's Alexandria, Va. condo.
Manafort already is under indictment in both Virginia and DC on multiple charges, including conspiracy against the United States, conspiracy to launder money, failure to file reports of foreign bank and financial accounts, being an unregistered agent of a foreign principal, making false statements, bank fraud, bank fraud conspiracy, and tax evasion.
Thursday's government document concerns Manafort's request for unredacted versions of seven warrant affidavits which Mueller's team says he either already has or should not have.
Shortly after Manafort raised the issue, the government produced additional copies of six affidavits previously given to Manafort in redacted form, and the government has since produced an affidavit from a newly obtained warrant. Three of the affidavits have no redactions, and Manafort’s motion is thus moot as to those affidavits. Three others have minimal redactions, while the newly obtained warrant has more substantial redactions. These redactions are fully justified by the government’s interests in protecting the identity of various sources of information and the need to preserve the confidentiality of ongoing investigations, and the withheld information is not necessary to establish probable cause. Manafort’s motion to compel should therefore be denied.
Mueller's team also says the redacted information Manafort wants to see does not pertain to the charges he currently faces.
As explained above, the government has redacted two limited classes of information in the affidavits: the names of confidential sources who had provided information to the government, and information relating to ongoing investigations that is not at issue in either of Manafort’s current prosecutions. Both justifications provide a proper basis for redaction at this stage of the proceedings.
Government Filing (pdf)
Mueller moved to seize bank accounts in Manafort probe (Politico)