Special Counsel Robert Mueller revealed in a Thursday night court filing that information obtained from Paul Manafort’s personal belongings — including five telephone numbers — are being used in other investigations of Russia’s meddling in the 2016 election.
The filing in a Washington, D.C., federal court disclosed that a search warrant was obtained on March 9 for “information associated” with five AT&T phone numbers. Prosecutors did not say what they were looking for because the warrant relates “to ongoing investigations that are not the subject of either of the current prosecutions involving Manafort.”
Mr. Manafort is charged in money laundering and bank and tax fraud in separate indictments in Washington, D.C., and Virginia. Prosecutors have alleged Mr. Manafort laundered tens of millions of dollars he earned as a lobbyist for the Ukrainian government through offshore bank accounts so he could avoid paying U.S. taxes on the income. He has pleaded not guilty in both indictments.
The court documents were filed in response to a request from Mr. Manafort’s attorneys to produce more detailed search warrant. In court filings last week, defense counsel accused prosecutors of “hiding” information related to the search warrants.
Prosecutors said the redactions in the search warrants are necessary to protect the identity of various sources and preserve the confidentiality of ongoing investigations.
Of the 11 additional affidavits produced by the government, some redactions were made “to protect the identities of individuals who provided information or to protect the government’s ongoing investigations,” prosecutors wrote in the filing. As a result, prosecutors asked the judge to allow them to withhold information from Mr. Manafort about warrants for a residence in Alexandria believed to belong to the defendant, a storage locker in Alexandria, Mr. Manafort’s business email account and five AT&T phone numbers.
Prosecutors did agree to provide Mr. Manfort with information about the search of two Washington, D.C., email accounts; a hard drive in Washington, D.C.; and three bank accounts.
It is not known if the searches were used to gather evidence against Mr. Manafort or others.
• Jeff Mordock can be reached at jmordock@washingtontimes.com.
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