While more than a dozen Trump associates are considered to be central players in the Russia investigation, special counsel Robert Mueller has been pursuing Paul Manafort with scorched-earth tactics that seem calculated to inspire fear—or force his cooperation. Among the most aggressive moves was a July 26 raid on Manafort’s home in Virginia, in which F.B.I. agents searched the former political operative’s property for evidence related to the Russia probe on the same day Manafort was set to testify before the Senate Judiciary Committee. But new details of Mueller’s visit, reported by The New York Times on Monday evening, are particularly shocking:

Paul J. Manafort was in bed early one morning in July when federal agents bearing a search warrant picked the lock on his front door and raided his Virginia home. They took binders stuffed with documents and copied his computer files, looking for evidence that Mr. Manafort, President Trump’s former campaign chairman, set up secret offshore bank accounts. They even photographed the expensive suits in his closet.

The special counsel, Robert S. Mueller III, then followed the house search with a warning: His prosecutors told Mr. Manafort they planned to indict him, said two people close to the investigation.

The very fact that the F.B.I. raided Manafort’s home is telling: the former Trump campaign manager is reportedly under investigation for potentially violating tax laws, money laundering, and the failure to disclose foreign lobbying on behalf of pro-Russian interests. In order for Mueller to obtain the warrant to search and enter Manafort’s home unannounced, his team would have had to convince a judge not only that the home contained evidence of a crime, but that Manafort was likely to destroy evidence. “Clearly they didn’t trust him,” Jimmy Gurulé, a Notre Dame law professor and former federal prosecutor, told the Times. “This is more consistent with how you’d go after an organized crime syndicate,” he added. (Manafort has repeatedly denied any wrongdoing.)

If Mueller’s tactics are extraordinary, it may be because the F.B.I. does not view this as a typical white-collar case. Also on Monday, CNN reported that U.S. law enforcement had wiretapped Manafort under a Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) warrant as early as 2014, when he came under investigation by the F.B.I. for work that he conducted as a political consultant for the pro-Kremlin Party of Regions in Ukraine. According to CNN, Manafort was under surveillance before the 2016 election, but the work was discontinued due to a lack of evidence at some point last year. The F.B.I. later obtained a new FISA warrant, which reportedly extended into early 2017 and was part of the probe into whether members of the Trump campaign worked with the Kremlin to derail Hillary Clinton’s candidacy.

As with the Mueller raid, the FISA warrant would have required sign-off from top Justice Department and F.B.I. officials and investigators—in this case to present a solid argument that the individual could be acting as an agent of a foreign government. It also means that Manafort would have been wiretapped during periods in which he is known to have been in touch with Trump. In August of last year, Manafort resigned as Trump’s campaign chairman following a separate Times report that said he received $12.7 million in undisclosed payments from the Ukrainian group, according to a handwritten ledger. (In June, Ukrainian prosecutors said they haven’t found any proof of illegal payments to Manafort.)

The latest revelations will only fuel speculation that Mueller’s team sees Manafort as either the primary suspect in any Russia-related wrongdoing, or the best person to flip to become a cooperating witness for the state. A series of moves over the past months suggest Mueller is attempting to gain maximum leverage over Manafort, who also attended a June 2016 meeting at Trump Tower with a Kremlin-connected Russian lawyer. Federal investigators have reportedly sought cooperation from or subpoenaed a number of Manafort’s associates, including his son-in-law, Jeffrey Yohai, with whom he has partnered on business deals; his spokesperson Jason Maloni, who appeared before a grand jury on Friday; the heads of Mercury Public Affairs and the Podesta Group, two consulting firms that worked with Manafort on behalf of exiled former Ukrainian president Viktor Yanukovych; and Melissa Laurenza, who previously represented Manafort. Last month, Mueller teamed up with New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman to investigate Manafort, an alliance that could circumvent Trump’s presidential pardon power.