By Steve Neavling
ticklethewire.com
The federal government may be closer to proving Donald Trump’s campaign was encouraging Russia to interfere in the 2016 presidential election.
Former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort has been under FBI surveillance beginning in 2014, CNN reports.
The surveillance included wiretapping and other types of searches that began in 2014, when Manafort was under investigation for work he did involving a group of Washington consulting firms for the former ruling party of Ukraine.
The wiretapping was permitted under a secret order authorized by the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) Court.
The information collected prompted concerns by the FBI that Manafort was encouraging Russia to meddle in the election. In 2016, the FBI obtained a second warrant because of suspicions that Manafort was acting as an agent of a foreign power. That warrant involved the bureau’s investigation into suspected collision between Trump’s campaign and the Russian government.
