Manafort seeks to suppress evidence
FBI seized material from storage unit as part of Russia investigation
WASHINGTON – Attorneys for former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort filed a motion late Friday to suppress evidence seized from a storage unit by FBI agents as part of special counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia investigation.
The motion, filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, alleges that the FBI initially searched the Alexandria, Virginia, storage locker last May without a warrant in violation of Manafort’s constitutional protections against unreasonable searches and seizures.
An FBI agent received permission to enter the storage unit from a man that Manafort’s attorneys described as “a former low-level employee” of Manafort’s company, Davis Manafort Partners Inc., which owned the storage unit. Manafort’s attorneys argue that the employee, who had a key to the storage unit and was named on the lease, did not have the authority to consent to the search.
The agent did not open any boxes or filing cabinets, but he used his knowledge of their existence as the basis to obtain a search warrant the next day, the motion says.
FBI agents then entered the storage unit and seized “virtually every document” inside, the motion says.
The motion alleges that the search warrant granted by the court “was an overbroad general warrant that improperly gave federal agents carte blanche to indiscriminately seize property contained within the storage unit in violation of Mr. Manafort’s Fourth Amendment rights.” It also alleges that the FBI search went beyond what agents were authorized to do.
“The Search Warrant should have never been issued, and all evidence that the government obtained from the FBI’s second search of the premises, and the fruits thereof, should be suppressed,” attorneys Kevin Downing and Thomas Zehnle wrote.
The special counsel’s office could not be reached for comment Saturday.