![\"\"](\"https:\/\/stateofthenation2012.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/09\/GetFile-2-5.jpg\")
<\/a>Former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort (AP)<\/p><\/div><\/p>\n
By Cathy Burke | NEWSMAX<\/p>\n
Former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort was wiretapped by U.S. investigators under secret court orders \u2014 both before and after the election,\u00a0CNN reported Monday night.<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n The government surveillance continued into early this year \u2014 a period during which Manafort spoke with President Donald Trump, according to the outlet.<\/p>\n The intelligence might have included communications Manafort allegedly encouraged Russians to help with the campaign, according to CNN, which cited three unnamed sources.<\/p>\n Trump has claimed former President Barack Obama had him wiretapped in Trump Tower, though the\u00a0Justice Department asserted there was no evidence<\/a><\/strong>\u00a0of that.<\/p>\n But the CNN report raises a question of whether his conversations with Manafort were picked up.<\/p>\n Two of the three sources told CNN the evidence is not conclusive.<\/p>\n Separately,\u00a0The New York Times reported<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0that federal agents, armed with a search warrant, raided Manafort\u2019s Virginia home last July \u2014 and prosecutors for special counsel Robert Mueller told Manafort later they planned to indict him.<\/p>\n CNN reported Mueller’s team, which is leading the investigation into Russia’s involvement in the 2016 election, has been given details of the Manafort wiretap.<\/p>\n According to CNN, the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act court order began after Manafort wound up subject of an FBI investigation begun in 2014. The probe centered on work done by a group of Washington consulting firms for Ukraine’s former ruling party.<\/p>\n That investigation was discontinued last year because of lack of evidence, CNN reported.<\/p>\n But the FBI’s interest was rekindled by intercepted communications between Manafort and suspected Russian operatives, and among the Russians themselves, CNN reported \u2014 and the agency obtained a new FISA warrant that extended at least into early 2017.<\/p>\n According to CNN, conversations between Manafort and Trump continued after he took office \u2014 and continued until lawyers for both men put a stop to them.<\/p>\n It is unclear whether Trump himself was picked up on the wiretap, CNN reported.<\/p>\n