Paul Manafort's longtime spokesman Jason Maloni is calling on the Justice Department to investigate who leaked the existence of a so-called FISA warrant targeting Manafort to the press.
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Paul Manafort spokesman issues rare public response to reports that Manafort was wiretapped
The spokesman, Jason Maloni, is calling on the Justice Department to find out who leaked the existence of a warrant that targeted Manafort last year.
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"If true, it is a felony to reveal the existence of a FISA warrant, regardless of the fact that no charges ever emerged," Maloni said in a statement on Tuesday.
"The US 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," he continued.
Maloni, who was issued a subpoena by the special counsel Robert Mueller earlier this month to testify before a federal grand jury, was responding to a CNN report published Monday night that said US investigators had obtained a warrant to wiretap Manafort before and after the election.
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"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," Maloni said.
Some of the information gleaned from the surveillance apparently prompted concerns that Manafort, who served as President Donald Trump's campaign chairman from March 2016 to August 2016, had encouraged Russians to "help with the campaign," CNN reported, citing three unnamed sources.
Asha Rangappa, a former FBI agent who served in the bureau's counterintelligence division, explained earlier this year that the FBI could request and be granted a warrant to monitor a US person from the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court "if they can show probable cause that the target is an 'agent of a foreign power' who is 'knowingly engag[ing] … in clandestine intelligence activities.'"
"In other words," Rangappa added, "the government has to show that the target might be spying for a foreign government or organization."
Investigators last year obtained a FISA warrant under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act to conduct surveillance on Manafort that continued through early 2017.
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The government eavesdropping apparently included a period earlier this year when Manafort was "known to talk" to President Donald Trump. The president sparked weeks of speculation in March when he accused former President Barack Obama of having his "wires tapped" in Trump Tower. Trump's own Justice Department, however, has said there is no evidence to support Trump's claim.
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