WASHINGTON – US FBI agents conducted a predawn raid of home of Paul Manafort, former chairman of Donald Trump’s presidential campaign in Alexandria, Virginia, a spokesperson for Manafort confirmed Wednesday.
“FBI agents executed a search warrant at one of Mr. Manafort’s residences,” Manafort’s spokesperson said in a statement.
“Mr. Manafort has consistently cooperated with law enforcement and other serious inquiries and did so on this occasion as well,” the statement said.
FBI agents, using a wide-ranging search warrant, raided Manafort’s home without advance warning in the predawn hours of July 26, the Washington Post reported earlier Wednesday, quoting people familiar with the special counsel Robert Mueller probe into ties between Trump’s campaign and Russia.
The agents departed the home with various records whose significance is unclear and materials Manafort had already provided to the Congress, said the report.
Manafort has voluntarily provided documents to both the Senate Judiciary Committee, the Senate and House intelligence committees, in compliance with their investigation into possible Russian election interference.
The Trump campaign submitted more than 20,000 pages of records to the Senate Judiciary Committee on Aug 2, the deadline to send over records to the committee.
Among them, Manafort reportedly provided about 400 pages, including his foreign agent advocacy paperwork. These documents are required by the Senate judiciary panel to include notes Manafort took while attending a meeting with the president’s eldest son Donald Trump Jr. and a Russian lawyer at Trump Tower in June 2016.
Manafort, a lobbyist and political consultant in the 1980s, resigned from the Trump campaign last August amid questions about his pro-Russia foreign business ties. He has come under intense scrutiny in the investigation into Russian election meddling since last year.
