Senate committee to subpoena Manafort documents

The Senate Judiciary Committee has reached an agreement to subpoena documents from former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort as part of its ongoing probe of Russian meddling in the 2016 elections, according to the top Democrat on the panel.

Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., told reporters Tuesday that the committee had decided to subpoena documents, but a spokesman for Feinstein would not detail what documents the committee is seeking. A spokesman for the committee chairman, Sen. Charles Grassley, RIowa, did not immediately return a request for comment.

Manafort has long been a focus of congressional investigators looking into possible Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election.

Manafort was personally and professionally connected to several allies of Russian President Vladimir Putin. At one point, he offered a Putin ally “private briefings” on the status of the 2016 campaign, people familiar with the discussions told the Washington Post.

For the Judiciary Committee, Manafort is also a subject of interest because of his unregistered lobbying activities on behalf of a Ukrainian political party with pro-Russia ties.

Over the summer, Manafort spoke with Senate Intelligence Committee investigators as part of their probe into alleged collusion between Trump surrogates and Kremlin officials. But the Judiciary Committee has never gotten an opportunity to interview Manfort.

Grassley and Feinstein previously subpoenaed him once over the summer, for documents and testimony — but they then dropped that subpoena in order to negotiate terms for an interview.