US investigators wiretapped US President Donald Trump’s former campaign chairman Paul Manafort under secret court orders before and after last year’s election, CNN reported on Monday.
The New York Times, citing two people close to the case, also reported that prosecutors told Manafort they planned to indict him.
Federal agents had raided Manafort’s Virginia house in July.
Manafort is one of several close advisers who helped Trump win the election and who are now being investigated as part of special counsel Robert Mueller’s probe of alleged Russian interference in the US vote.
Manafort became Trump’s campaign manager in June last year, but was forced to resign two months later amid reports of his business relationship with the Kremlin-backed former Ukrainian president Viktor Yanukovych.
Manafort’s attorney and the White House did not immediately respond to requests for comment on the stories.
The secret court that oversees warrant requests under the US Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) initially authorized monitoring of Manafort, but discontinued it at some point last year for lack of evidence, CNN said, citing one of its sources.
The FBI resumed surveillance under a new FISA warrant at some point last year and continued to monitor him into this year, CNN said.
The second warrant was obtained as part of the FBI’s investigation into ties between Trump campaign associates and Russian operatives, it said.
FISA warrants require the approval of top FBI and US Department of Justice officials.
Law enforcement has to demonstrate to the court that there is reason to believe that the subject of the investigation may be acting as an agent of a foreign power to obtain such a warrant.
CNN said interest in Manafort deepened because of intercepted communications between him and Russian operatives, and among the Russians.
The US government eavesdropping continued into this year, including a period when Manafort was known to talk to Trump after he became president.
CNN said it was unclear if Trump was picked up on the surveillance.
The FBI was not listening in June last year when Donald Trump Jr, Manafort and top White House adviser Jared Kushner met with a Russian lawyer who had promised to deliver negative information on Trump’s rival, Democrat candidate Hillary Rodham Clinton, CNN said.
Russia has denied interfering in the US election and Trump has denied there was collusion.
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