Trump lawyer labeled Manafort raid ‘gross abuse’: report

President Trump’s chief counsel reportedly accused the special counsel’s office of committing a “gross abuse of the judicial process” with the FBI raid of Paul Manafort’s home. 

Fox News reported that John Dowd said in an email to a Wall Street Journal reporter that such tactics were more commonly “employed in Russia not America” and called the search an “extraordinary invasion of privacy.” The network said it obtained a copy of the email.

Manafort, who served as President Trump’s campaign manager, had already said he would cooperate with congressional committees investigating Russia’s role in the 2016 election, Dowd wrote, according to Fox News, and never received a request from the special counsel’s office to provide materials.

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“It appears the Search Warrant here was obtained by a gross abuse of the judicial process by the Special Counsel’s office,” he wrote, according to Fox News.

“In addition, given the obvious unlawful deficiencies, this extraordinary invasive tool was employed for its shock value to try to intimidate Mr. Manafort and bring him to his needs. These methods are normally found and employed in Russia not America.”

Reports emerged Wednesday that the FBI raided Manafort’s home in Alexandria, Va., late last month. Analysts said the move signals an aggressive new approach to the Russia probe by special counsel Robert Mueller and his team of investigators.

In his email, Dowd said that among the documents obtained by FBI agents were “privileged and confidential materials prepared for Mr. Manafort by his counsel to aid him in his cooperation with the Congressional committees,” according to Fox News.

“These failures by Special Counsel to exhaust less intrusive methods is a fatal flaw in the warrant process and would call for a Motion to Suppress the fruits of the search,” he wrote.

Manafort left Trump’s campaign in August 2016, but he has become a central figure in the ongoing special counsel and congressional probes into Russian meddling in the election and possible ties between the Trump campaign and Moscow.