Most search warrants issued during special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation were in the spring and summer of 2018, newly released court documents show.
The 233 pages of documents provide the most detailed look yet at the investigation, but do not shine any new light on grand jury testimony or on what foreign governments Mueller may have reached out to for help in his probe.
The documents, which relate to previously sealed court dockets from the special counsel probe, were ordered released Monday evening by Chief Judge Beryl A. Howell of the U.S. District Court in D.C. following litigation by CNN. The records reveal dates and general investigative targets, but specific names are redacted or not included.
Mueller was granted 499 search-and-seizure warrants during the course of his investigation, and an overwhelming number of those warrants were granted fairly early on in the nearly two-year endeavor. Eighty-two were requested beginning in July 2017 while another 375 were requested between January 2018 and June 2018. From July 2018 through the investigation’s end in March 2019, only 42 more warrants were requested.
Mueller’s investigation was launched in May 2017 and ended in March 2019, with his report released in April.
The new documents show that Mueller seems to have attempted to seize information directly from the FBI itself, with one warrant requesting “information associated with the email account [redacted] maintained by the Federal Bureau of Investigation” while another sought information on “email accounts and ten electronic devices currently located at the FBI Washington Field Office.”
The warrants also targeted a large number of social media accounts, including LinkedIn, Twitter, hundreds of Facebook and Instagram accounts, and hundreds of Facebook pages. Many of these warrants were likely related to the Russian social media disinformation campaign during 2016, and Mueller eventually indicted the Kremlin-linked Russian company Internet Research Agency and twelve Russian nationals in connection to those efforts.
And some of the documents clearly relate to former Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort, with warrants aimed at bank accounts with a total value in the millions from Federal Savings Bank, Charles Schwab, and Capital One, where Manafort’s criminal proceedings later revealed he had accounts.
Mueller did not establish that any members of the Trump campaign had conspired with the Russians or reach a conclusion on obstruction of justice, but laid out ten episodes of possible obstruction.
These new records show that targets of the hundreds of other search warrants included electronic devices, hard drives, Apple devices, iPhones and other cellphones, laptops, and physical premises as well as accounts for Dropbox, Skype, Apple, email, and Google.
CNN had asked the court to order released “all non-grand jury subpoena matters, search warrant applications and orders, applications and orders for communication records, applications and orders authorizing use of pen registers, requests for assistance to foreign governments, and any other matters in which the Special Counsel sought assistance or authorization from this Court.”
The Department of Justice had responded that it didn’t object to the release of “the vast majority of that information” but it did identify “a few entries on the lists that the government may request be redacted from a public release to protect ongoing law enforcement interests.”
The court granted information related to most, but not all, of CNN’s requests.
The new data showed that Mueller was also granted 179 orders through the set of laws governing the seizure of electronic communications, again revealing a flurry of activity during the first year or so of the probe with a steep drop-off after. Out of those 179 orders, 44 were requested in 2017 and another 117 were requested between January 2018 and May 2018. From June 2018 through the end of the probe, only 18 more were made.
And Mueller was also granted 49 orders flowing from 21 docketed requests related to tap and trace requests and pen registers, which are different ways of monitoring phone calls. Eight of those 21 requests took place in 2017, and no requests were made after September 2018.
The Mueller report previously stated that the special counsel’s office had “executed nearly 500 search-and-seizure warrants; obtained more than 230 orders for communications records under 18 U.S.C. § 2703(d); [and] obtained almost 50 orders authorizing use of pen registers.” The data released by the court seems to largely confirm those numbers.
The court also said that information on investigators’ 13 requests to foreign governments would not be made available.
Mueller himself could be called to testify about his investigation in front of Congress.
