Corey Lewandowski said Monday the FBI should have notified him that Paul Manafort was under suspicion when he joined the Trump campaign.
“He was under a FISA warrant, supposedly, both before and after his tenure at the campaign and the FBI never notified the leading presidential candidate for a major Republican Party race? Never notified him of a potential problem? This is a problem with the FBI, if you ask me,” Mr. Lewandowski said on Fox Business, referring to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court that issues warrants to monitor individuals who are thought to be spies.
Mr. Lewandowski served as President Trump’s campaign manager prior to Mr. Manafort taking the position last June, and said the FBI never notified the campaign that they had suspicions about Mr. Manafort’s past business dealings. He did say that while Mr. Manafort should be held accountable for any wrongdoings, the president should not be tied to it.
“If Paul Manafort did something in 2006, a decade before he was brought on as a volunteer to the Trump campaign, then he should be accountable for that,” Mr. Lewandowski said. “He and his associate, Rick Gates, have now been indicted on 12 counts of money laundering and probably tax evasion and other things, which have absolutely nothing to do with the campaign, have nothing to do with the Russia investigation, and have nothing to do with the president.”
Mr. Manafort and Mr. Gates were charged early Monday and told to surrender themselves to authorities. The two men are scheduled to appear in U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C., Monday afternoon.
• Sally Persons can be reached at spersons@washingtontimes.com.
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