Report: Feds warned ex-Trump campaign chief Manafort of indictment

Prosecutors working for special counsel Robert S. Mueller III have told Paul J. Manafort that they plan to indict the former presidential campaign chairman, the New York Times is reporting.

Prosecutors delivered the warning to Manafort, former campaign chief to President Donald Trump, after federal agents raided his Virginia home to execute a search warrant in July, two sources told the newspaper.

The feds took documents, copied computer files and photographed the suits in Manafort’s closet, the newspaper reported, describing it as an example of the aggressive tactics Mueller is using in his investigation into Russian interference in last year’s election.

“Dispensing with the plodding pace typical of many white-collar investigations, Mr. Mueller’s team has used what some describe as shock-and-awe tactics to intimidate witnesses and potential targets of the inquiry,” the Times reports.

“They are setting a tone. It’s important early on to strike terror in the hearts of people in Washington, or else you will be rolled,” attorney Solomon L. Wisenberg told the Times.

Wisenberg was a key figure in the investigation that led to the impeachment trial of President Bill Clinton in 1999.

“You want people saying to themselves, ‘Man, I had better tell these guys the truth,’” Wisenberg said.