Paul Manafort is facing two indictments obtained by Special Counsel Robert Mueller's office. | Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images Manafort moves to suppress evidence found in storage unit Lawyers for former Trump campaign chairman say FBI illegally accessed the locker, then returned with warrant.

Lawyers for former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort are arguing that what could be key evidence against him should be kept out of court because the FBI violated his Constitutional rights by illegally entering a storage locker belonging to Manafort's firm.

The FBI first got into the Alexandria, Va. storage unit last May with the assistance of an employee who worked at two or more of Manafort's companies, an agent told the federal magistrate judge who issued the warrant. Then, the agent used what he saw written on so-called Banker's Boxes and the fact there was a five-drawer filing cabinet to get permission to return and seize many of the records.


In a motion filed Friday night in federal court in Washington, Manafort's defense team contends that the initial entry was illegal because the employee did not not have authority to let the FBI into the locker. The defense also argues that the warrant was overbroad and that agents seizing records went beyond what limits the warrant did set.

"The FBI Agent had no legitimate basis to reasonably believe that the former employee had common authority to consent to the warrantless



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initial search of the storage unit," attorneys Kevin Downing and Thomas Zehnle wrote.

Manafort is facing two indictments obtained by Special Counsel Robert Mueller's office. One, brought in Washington, charges Manafort with money laundering and acting as a foreign agent without registering with the Justice Department. Another, brought in Alexandria, accuses Manafort of tax fraud, bank fraud and failing to report foreign bank accounts.

In the new motion, Manafort's defense asks the judge overseeing the Washington case, Amy Berman Jackson, to rule the search illegal and suppress the evidence the FBI found. Defense attorneys were also facing a deadline Friday to file a motion to suppress evidence found in a search of Manafort's Alexandria condo in July, but they asked for a last-minute extension until Monday.

The warrant U.S. Magistrate Judge Theresa Buchanan issued for the storage locker on May 27 authorized FBI agents to seize virtually any financial or tax records relating to Manafort or his business partner Rick Gates. Also approved for seizure were any records relating to former Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych, his Party of Regions, a pro-Ukraine think tank called the European Center for a Modern Ukraine and a slew of offshore companies connected to Manafort.

The warrant also indicates that among the records FBI agents were authorized to seize from Manafort's unit were all records "related to, discussing or documenting the Podesta Group." Manafort engaged the Podesta Group for Ukraine-related lobbying. The lobbying group belatedly filed a foreign agent registration for that work last year. Earlier this year, the Podesta Group abruptly disbanded. It has not been charged.

Manafort's defense claims the warrant was fatally overbroad, particularly because it did not provide any time frame to cabin the scope of what agents could seize.

"The Search Warrant functioned as a general warrant that improperly authorized an unfettered search and the wholesale seizure of virtually every document contained within the storage unit," Downing and Zehnle wrote.

The agent who obtained the warrant said he entered the locker with the former employee, who used a key he had to the unit, on May 26. The agent noted some of the writing on the storage boxes and included that in the warrant application. Agents staked out the locker for the rest of that day and much of the next in order to see if anyone entered. No one did.

Buchanan issued the warrant at 4:47 P.M. on May 27 and FBI agents entered the locker to carry out the seizure just 33 minutes later, the newly-filed court records show.