Speaker 1: The Washington Post is reporting that last month, FBI agents
Speaker 1: conducted a pre dawn raid of the Alexander, Alexandria, Virginia
Speaker 1: home of Paul Manafort, Donald Trump's former campaign chairman. Manafort
Speaker 1: is a key figure in Special Consul Robert Mueller's investigation
Speaker 1: into potential ties between the Trump campaign and Russia, in
Speaker 1: particular Russia's efforts to influence the election. The agents came
Speaker 1: to armed with a search warrant that requested documents related
Speaker 1: to taxes and banking. The Post said they reportedly left
Speaker 1: with binders full of material. A Manafort spokesman subsequently confirmed
Speaker 1: that agents had conducted the search and said that Manafort.
Speaker 1: Manafort had cooperated with me to talk about it is
Speaker 1: Bradley Moss, a partner at Mark's Aid PLC here in Washington.
Speaker 1: He specializes in national security matters. Brad, thanks for joining us. Um.
Speaker 1: Manafort has been voluntarily producing documents for the congressional committees
Speaker 1: looking into Russia. What does the fact the FBI felt
Speaker 1: it it still needed to conduct a raid tell us
Speaker 1: about the state of the investigation. Absolutely happened to give
Speaker 1: you a hand here. So the fact that this raid
Speaker 1: was still conducted the fact that they still got a
Speaker 1: judge to sign off on the search warrant has to
Speaker 1: raise eyebrows and raise concerns that the documentation that was
Speaker 1: being produced by Mr Manafort's legal team was insufficient. In
Speaker 1: that the FBI, particularly Special Counsel um lest Mr Mueller,
Speaker 1: had concluded the additional records that Mr Manafort had not
Speaker 1: been turning over, that there was probable cause to believe
Speaker 1: that the records that were located at Mr Manafort's home
Speaker 1: in Alexandria reflected evidence of a crime. And the fact
Speaker 1: that they didn't have to announce themselves. They got what's
Speaker 1: called a no knock warrant. They could just barge in
Speaker 1: without announcing FBI from the door indicates they were able
Speaker 1: to convince the judge that there was a credible fear
Speaker 1: that if they had announced themselves, Mr Manafort would have
Speaker 1: destroyed the records. Now, this in and of itself doesn't
Speaker 1: necessarily mean there's much more to this than Mr Manafort's
Speaker 1: own troubles. It doesn't mean there's something else beyond In
Speaker 1: terms of the overarching Rush investigation. We don't know what
Speaker 1: they found. It sounds like very much has to do
Speaker 1: with financial proprieties if that ultimately turns out to be
Speaker 1: the case. But it'll be interesting to see how this
Speaker 1: plays out whether or not the Special Counsel is essentially
Speaker 1: using a smaller fish like Mr Manafort to try to
Speaker 1: gain leverage and get information out of him to go
Speaker 1: after juicier and larger targets. Yeah, talk a little more
Speaker 1: about how Manafort fits into this broader investigation. Is he
Speaker 1: more of a of a standalone figure in it that
Speaker 1: had his own particular financial issues, or is he potentially
Speaker 1: connected to other broader allegations involving the Trump campaign. That
Speaker 1: remains somewhat the sixty four thou dollar question because the
Speaker 1: honest answers, we don't truly know. There was there were leaks,
Speaker 1: and I said they were concerned even before UM this
Speaker 1: big investigation started with respect to Mr Manaford and his
Speaker 1: financial ties to certain political groups and organizations in Eastern Europe,
Speaker 1: particularly pro Russian Ukrainian groups. So there's a question about
Speaker 1: whether or not some of these financial issues and financial
Speaker 1: proprieties were unrelated to his work on the Trump campaign.
Speaker 1: There was whether or not he had properly registered as
Speaker 1: a foreign agent under the Foreign Agent Registration Act. So
Speaker 1: all that would would somewhat be separate. But there's also
Speaker 1: been a lot of discussion, and admittedly this must have
Speaker 1: been officially disclosed one way or the other ongoing investigation,
Speaker 1: but the leagues that have come out in the media
Speaker 1: have suggested the possibility that if there was some measure
Speaker 1: of financial coordination between the Trump campaign and the Russian
Speaker 1: government or associates of the Russian government, that Mr Manafort
Speaker 1: would have been the go between. That if anybody had
Speaker 1: that level of contact, whether intentionally or possibly unwittingly, that
Speaker 1: Mr Manafort would have been that person in the middle.
Speaker 1: And he was also not in that meeting involving Donald
Speaker 1: Trump Junior and the Russian lawyer that we were all
Speaker 1: talking so much about over the last couple of weeks. Yes,
Speaker 1: he was president, which, of course, you know, if you
Speaker 1: really think that this is going to be a known
Speaker 1: nothing you know and nothing meeting with no real information,
Speaker 1: why would you bring your campaign manager there. But he
Speaker 1: was president, And we don't know beyond the emails that
Speaker 1: Donald Trump Jr. Has published, we don't know what else
Speaker 1: necessarily occurred. We know what they told us in public statements.
Speaker 1: But there's been concerns that there were more conversations or
Speaker 1: powerful discussions beyond this one meeting, and that's part of
Speaker 1: what this raid. It's part of what the document request
Speaker 1: of both Congress and Special Counsel been making to Mr Manaford,
Speaker 1: as well as to Jared Kushner and Donald Trump Jr.
Speaker 1: Have been looking into, is whether or not this was
Speaker 1: just a one off meeting or part of a larger
Speaker 1: coordinations game. Brad only about thirty seconds more, uh is
Speaker 1: used the phrase probable cause um, suggesting that there's a
Speaker 1: more a likelihood that crime was committed. Um. Should we
Speaker 1: take that as a as a significant sign of of
Speaker 1: an escalation in this investigation and the likelihood of an
Speaker 1: indictment of some sort coming soon. Yeah, it's it's certainly
Speaker 1: an escalation if they're not used simply using subpoenas, which
Speaker 1: are more easily challenged and have a lower threshold. Securing
Speaker 1: a search warrant requires more revidence, requires going to the judge,
Speaker 1: requires more eventuary basis, It doesn't mean indictmental happen, and
Speaker 1: I didn't. Even if there's an indictment means the person
Speaker 1: is guilty. Everybody's in a sent until proven guilty. But
Speaker 1: the fact they were able to secure this. The fact
Speaker 1: that they already took this step is most definitely an
Speaker 1: escalation of the process. Okay, I want to thank our
Speaker 1: guest Bradley Moss. He's a partner at um Mark's AID PLC.
Speaker 1: He specializes in national security matters. Talking about the raid
Speaker 1: on the home of Paul Manafort, donald Trump's former campaign chairman.
Speaker 1: I have a little breaking news right here. Uh. Donald
Speaker 1: Trump has selected a new chairman of the Federal Energy
Speaker 1: Regulatory Commission. It is Neil chatter Gee. He is already
Speaker 1: been confirmed to serve run the commission. Now he's going
Speaker 1: to be the chair