President Trump’s former campaign chairman wants the Justice Department to investigate a report that he was the subject of secret FBI wiretaps.
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President Trump’s former campaign chairman, Paul Manafort, demanded on Tuesday that the government open an investigation into news reports that he had been wiretapped by the FBI.
CNN reported Monday that Manafort had been the target of FBI wiretaps both before and after he ran Trump’s presidential campaign. The network reported that the eavesdropping was authorized under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, which permits the government to secretly wiretap Americans if it can persuade a judge that they are agents of a foreign power.
Manafort’s spokesman Jason Maloni said if that report is true, the Justice Department’s Inspector General should open an investigation into the leak of a FISA warrant, which is a felony.
Maloni also said the IG should “examine the motivations behind a previous administration’s effort to surveil a political opponent.”
The Justice Department has refused to confirm or deny whether any of the president’s associates were the targets of intelligence wiretaps. FISA orders are classified and rarely become public.
Maloni said the alleged surveillance did not lead prosecutors to seek criminal charges against Manafort. And he urged the government to “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 has been a subject of special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into Russian meddling in the 2016 election and possible collusion with Trump associates. Investigators have focused on work Manafort’s firm did for a pro-Russian group in Ukraine between 2012 and 2014.
Trump claimed in a series of tweets on March 4 that President Obama’s administration had tapped his phones in Trump tower. “This is Nixon/Watergate. Bad (or sick) guy!” the president tweeted.
USA TODAY and the non-profit James Madison Project filed a lawsuit in April to force the FBI to turn over records of FISA surveillance of Trump or his aides during the 2016 campaign.
The Justice Department has said in court filings that it has no records of surveillance that would substantiate Trump’s allegations.
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