The former campaign chairman for the President Donald Trump, Paul Manafort, urged the Justice Department’s inspector general to start an investigation into leaks after the CNN reported that the FBI has initiated separate wiretap probes of him before and after the election last year, Bloomberg reports.
On Monday CNN reported that Manafort was wiretapped with a secret court order between 2014 and early 2016 under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, and the FBI obtained a second FISA court order extending into early this year.
The FBI’s probe is investigating the relations between Russian officials and the Trump campaign, and if Trump or any of his associates colluded with Moscow. Special Counsel Robert Mueller, who was appointed to supervise the investigation this year, has obtained details of the communications, CNN stated.
“If true, it is a felony to reveal the existence of a FISA warrant, regardless of the fact that no charges ever emerged,” Manafort spokesman Jason Maloni said in a statement on Tuesday.
The Justice Department’s inspector general “should immediately conduct an investigation into these leaks and to examine the motivations behind a previous administration’s effort to surveil a political opponent.”
Manafort also urged the Justice Department to reveal “any intercepts involving him and any non-Americans so interested parties can come to the same conclusion as the DOJ — there is nothing there,” Maloni said.
The FBI representatives and Mueller did not want to comment.
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