Sep 20, 2017

National Review: Manafort's legal troubles might not lead to Trump

Manafort appears on stage ahead of Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump, June, 2016. Photo: Mary Altaffer / AP

We now know that Trump's former campaign chairman, Paul Manafort, was wiretapped under orders from the Obama administration and that the FBI has raided his home as part of the special counsel probe of Russian interference in the election. National Review's Andrew C. McCarthy points out these are two very different issues, none of which necessarily spells certain trouble for Trump.

  • The residence raid is part of the Mueller criminal investigation.
  • The FISA wiretapping was part of an effort to understand the behaviors of a foreign power by monitoring one of its suspected agents.

Bottom line, as McCarthy writes: "Paul Manafort appears to be in serious jeopardy, but any suspected criminality may involve matters having nothing to do with President Trump…It has never necessarily followed that legal trouble for Manafort is legal trouble for Trump — even if it does portend tremendous political trouble for the Trump administration."

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