Less than two weeks before Donald Trump accepted the Republican presidential nomination, his campaign chairman offered to provide briefings on the race to a Russian billionaire closely aligned with the Kremlin, according to people familiar with the discussions.

Paul Manafort made the offer in an email to an overseas intermediary, asking that a message be sent to Oleg Deripaska, an aluminum magnate with whom Manafort had done business in the past, these people said.

“If he needs private briefings we can accommodate,” Manafort wrote in the July 7, 2016, email, portions of which were read to The Washington Post along with other Manafort correspondence from that time.

The emails are among tens of thousands of documents that have been turned over to congressional investigators and special counsel Robert S. Mueller III’s team as they probe whether Trump associates coordinated with Russia as part of Moscow’s efforts to interfere in the 2016 U.S. election.

Officially, he wasn’t “wire-tapped.” His communications were intercepted. All of them. He talked to many, many people. It’s all recorded and being transcribed. Discussions with others provides opportunity to look into them. Could be the block that pulls the whole thing down. We’ll see. Autumn promises to be entertaining.

Also, recall that it was revealed that the intelligence community have ways of using the microphone of a smart phone as a hot mic, a bug that gets carried into every meeting. Was that used here? Who knows? We’ve heard the administration is worried about staffers being “wired”. They don’t have to be equipped with any tech other than their phone. They just have to agree to have it turned into a bug.

“Lordy, I hope there are tapes!” might have been a hint.

The government snooping continued into early this year, including a period when Manafort was known to talk to President Donald Trump.
Some of the intelligence collected includes communications that sparked concerns among investigators that Manafort had encouraged the Russians to help with the campaign, according to three sources familiar with the investigation. Two of these sources, however, cautioned that the evidence is not conclusive.

Special counsel Robert Mueller’s team, which is leading the investigation into Russia’s involvement in the election, has been provided details of these communications.
A secret order authorized by the court that handles the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) began after Manafort became the subject of an FBI investigation that began in 2014. It centered on work done by a group of Washington consulting firms for Ukraine’s former ruling party, the sources told CNN.

…

Sources say the second warrant was part of the FBI’s efforts to investigate ties between Trump campaign associates and suspected Russian operatives. Such warrants require the approval of top Justice Department and FBI officials, and the FBI must provide the court with information showing suspicion that the subject of the warrant may be acting as an agent of a foreign power.
Flynn's family sets up legal defense fund
Flynn’s family sets up legal defense fund
It is unclear when the new warrant started. The FBI interest deepened last fall because of intercepted communications between Manafort and suspected Russian operatives, and among the Russians themselves, that reignited their interest in Manafort, the sources told CNN. As part of the FISA warrant, CNN has learned that earlier this year, the FBI conducted a search of a storage facility belonging to Manafort. It’s not known what they found.

Prosecutors on special counsel Robert Mueller’s team reportedly told former Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort that they planned to indict him while they raided his Virginia home in July.

The warning, allegedly a shock-and-awe tactic, came as federal agents combed through his computer files, documents, and any other evidence that could help them in their federal investigation, The New York Times reported Monday, citing two people close to the investigation.