Mueller moved to seize three bank accounts during Manafort investigation

Special counsel Robert Mueller moved to seize bank accounts at three different financial institutions last year, a day before he indicted President Trump’s former campaign chairman, Paul Manafort, a Thursday court filing shows.

The bank accounts were revealed in a search-and-seizure list from Washington prosecutors.

Manafort’s defense team said the government wasn’t disclosing the details of how the warrants were obtained, Politico reported late Thursday.

{mosads}Prosecutors revealed that they withheld some information that would identify informants or that was related to “ongoing investigations that are not the subject of either of the current prosecutions involving Manafort.” 

Investigators also obtained a warrant for information related to five different AT&T telephone numbers. Another warrant was obtained to search a Virginia storage locker owned by Manafort.

Manafort’s attorneys claimed FBI agents appeared to have gotten into the storage locker before a federal magistrate in Virginia approved the warrant, Politico reported.

FBI agents also raided Manafort’s Alexandria, Va., home last July.

On Wednesday, a federal judge rejected most of Manafort’s arguments in a lawsuit trying to limit the scope of Mueller’s investigation.

Manafort’s team had argued that Mueller’s investigation had overstepped its intention and should be shut down. Manafort also said Mueller did not have the authority to probe his past before he joined the Trump campaign.

U.S. District Judge Amy Berman said Manafort’s lawsuit “lacks merit.”

Manafort has pleaded not guilty to charges of money laundering and tax fraud related to his lobbying work for a pro-Russia political party in Ukraine. 

Mueller alleges that Manafort and his associate Richard Gates were paid tens of millions of dollars that they then laundered “in order to hide Ukraine payments from United States authorities.”

Gates pleaded guilty to two charges earlier this year is cooperating with Mueller.

Manafort has denied the allegations, which were brought out by Mueller’s team in an attempt to determine if there was collusion with Russia during Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign.

On Tuesday, it was reported that a federal judge is expected to hand down the first sentence stemming from Mueller’s probe.

Dutch national Alex van der Zwaan pleaded guilty to lying to federal agents.