Paul Manafort’s spokesman condemned recent reports that his client had been surveilled by federal officials while serving in the Trump campaign and after the 2016 presidential election as well.
“If true, it is a felony to reveal the existence of a FISA warrant, regardless of the fact that no charges ever emerged,” Jason Maloni said in an emailed statement on Tuesday.
“The U.S Department of Justice’s Inspector General should immediately conduct an investigation into these leaks and to examine the motivations behind a previous Administration’s effort to surveil a political opponent. Mr. Manafort requests that the Department of Justice release any intercepts involving him and any non-Americans so interested parties can come to the same conclusion as the DOJ — there is nothing there.”
Manafort was Trump’s campaign manager for most of the summer in 2016 after Corey Lewandowski was fired. Manafort’s dealings with Ukraine were a major factor in his dismissal as the campaign manager in August of that year.
The CNN report that first broke the news about Manafort being wiretapped via a FISA warrant said some investigators were concerned that intelligence could show Manafort had encouraged some of the Russian activities to meddle in the elections last year. However, the same report also said that one source familiar with the matter indicated that the surveillance was discontinued at one point because of a lack of evidence. The FBI later reinitiated its surveillance efforts when obtained a FISA warrant that stretched at least as far into the early part of 2017.
Last Friday, Maloni gave two-and-a-half hours of testimony to the grand jury impaneled by Robert Mueller in the Department of Justice special counsel investigation. Upon leaving the courthouse, Maloni told reporters, “I answered questions and I’ve been dismissed. That’s all I have to say.”
The Department of Justice announced in early August that they’d be stepping up their investigations of numerous leaks surrounding the White House, but since then, no public disclosure of any progress in those investigations has been made.
“No one is entitled to surreptitiously fight to advance battles in the media by revealing sensitive government information,” Attorney General Jeff Sessions said at the time.
