Global banking records belonging to former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort have been subpoenaed by special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigators, Bloomberg reported Thursday.
The subpoenas highlight just how prominent a focus of Mueller’s investigation Manafort has become. The former campaign chairman’s house was raided in late July, and Mueller has reached out to Manafort’s son-in-law to seek his cooperation, Politico reported Wednesday.
Per Bloomberg:
Mueller’s team of investigators has sent subpoenas in recent weeks from a Washington grand jury to global banks for account information and records of transactions involving Manafort and some of his companies, as well as those of a long-time business partner, Rick Gates, according to people familiar with the matter.
The New York Times reported Wednesday that the FBI agents searching Manafort’s home sought “tax documents and foreign banking records,” citing an unnamed person familiar with the matter.
The Wall Street Journal reported back in May that the Justice Department had requested Manafort’s banking records from Citizens Financial Group Inc., citing unnamed people familiar with the matter. That report noted “[i]t isn’t clear whether Citizens is the only bank that received such a request or whether it came in the form of a subpoena.”
Gates, Manafort’s longtime business partner, was involved in Manafort’s firm Davis Manafort. Gates, Manafort and the Republican lobbyist Rick Davis worked to reform the image of the pro-Russian Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych.
Sooner or later, there will be a GLORIOUS Twitter meltdown.
I’m not convinced there’s going to be a financial smoking gun in Manafort’s finances that directly implicates Trump in something nasty/illegal, but I’ll be plenty happy enough when Manafort goes down for his own personal failings.
When we get to that stage, I’m gonna celebrate every indictment in a vacuum, without stressing too much about who else Mueller has or hasn’t already nailed down.
I don’t know more than the generals the way Trump does, but I’ve read about the famous military principle called Schwerpunkt in German, the doctrine of concentrating your forces on decisive focal points. Mueller’s team obviously sees Manafort as the linchpin to the collusion. This is no fishing expedition. It’s more like what you do when you know exactly where to look for what you want.
Drip, Drip, DERP!
Coming up on CNN: “Manafort raid rattles White House”