Washington, D.C.
Manafort wiretapped: Federal agents obtained a secret court order to wiretap former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort before and after the 2016 election, CNN reported this week, and details of those communications are in the hands of special counsel Robert Mueller. The FBI reportedly began monitoring Manafort in 2014 while investigating consulting work he had done for a former Ukrainian regime backed by Russia. The secret surveillance, authorized under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, was discontinued last year for lack of evidence, but restarted after the FBI began to investigate ties between the Trump campaign and suspected Russian operatives. The surveillance may have picked up conversations with President Trump, who continued talking with Manafort after taking office until lawyers urged him
to stop.