The Manhattan U.S. attorney’s office is pursuing an investigation into possible money laundering by Paul Manafort, said three people familiar with the matter, adding to the federal and state probes concerning the former Trump campaign chairman.

The investigation by the U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York is being conducted in collaboration with a probe by special counsel Robert Mueller into Mr. Manafort and possible money laundering, according to two of these people.

A spokesman for Mr. Manafort declined to comment. Mr. Manafort has previously said he did nothing wrong.

The continuing Manhattan U.S. attorney’s probe, which hasn’t been previously reported, is unfolding at the same time the Brooklyn U.S. attorney’s office pursues an inquiry involving Kushner Cos., owned by the family of President Donald Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner.

Mr. Trump has interviewed and is poised to nominate candidates to lead the prosecutorial offices in both Manhattan and Brooklyn. The probes could complicate the confirmation process, especially because Mr. Trump is considering individuals with ties to his personal lawyer and to a political ally.


The inquiry in the Manhattan U.S. attorney’s office is being conducted at least in part by Assistant U.S. Attorney Paul Monteleoni, previously a member of the money-laundering and asset-forfeiture unit, who joined the public-corruption team in recent months, according to people familiar with the matter.

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The chief of the office’s public-corruption unit, Andrew Goldstein, was hired over the summer by Mr. Mueller to join his wide-ranging investigation of alleged Russian meddling in the 2016 election, including possible collusion between the Trump campaign and Russian operatives. The president has said his aides did nothing wrong, and Russia has denied meddling in the campaign.

Mr. Mueller’s operation took over parts of the Manafort money-laundering probe after Mr. Goldstein arrived. But federal prosecutors in his former office have continued to pursue their investigation in conjunction with the special counsel’s team, the people familiar with the matter said.

The special counsel’s operation also has communicated with New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman’s office about the state’s own money-laundering probe concerning Mr. Manafort.


In the Eastern District of New York, based in Brooklyn, federal prosecutors are probing Kushner Cos., the New York property-development business owned by the family of Mr. Kushner, a White House senior adviser, regarding its use of an investment-for-immigration program, The Wall Street Journal has reported. Kushner Cos. has been subpoenaed in that investigation, which involves the federal visa program known as EB-5.

The company’s general counsel, Emily Wolf, has said that “Kushner Cos. utilized the program, fully complied with its rules and regulations and did nothing improper. We are cooperating with legal requests for information.”

Mr. Kushner resigned from the business and sold his personal stake in some projects and assets to family members and others after last year’s election, but he retains a stake in at least one of the properties for which his family’s company used the EB-5 program, according to his most recent personal financial disclosure form.

The heads of the U.S. attorney’s offices in Manhattan and Brooklyn are two of the most powerful prosecutorial posts in the country, and Mr. Trump has personally interviewed candidates for both. He interviewed Edward McNally for the Brooklyn post and Geoffrey Berman for the Manhattan position, according to people familiar with the matter.


The two candidates have already drawn scrutiny for their close ties to Mr. Trump’s allies. Mr. Berman is a law partner of Trump political allyRudy Giuliani at Greenberg Traurig LLP. And Mr. McNally is a law partner of Mr. Trump’s personal attorney, Marc Kasowitz, at Kasowitz Benson Torres & Friedman LLP.

Former Manhattan U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara, who has clashed with Mr. Trump over his own firing earlier this year, has described Mr. Trump’s personal involvement in the process as “neither normal nor advisable.”

White House spokeswoman Kelly Love said Mr. Trump “and other presidents before him and after may talk to individuals nominated to positions within the executive branch.”

Paul Rosenzweig, who was a deputy to Independent Counsel Kenneth Starr during Mr. Starr’s investigation of President Bill Clinton, said the existence of the probes in the Manhattan and Brooklyn U.S. attorneys’ offices was cause for alarm due to “the president’s already demonstrated interest in trying to insert himself into decision-making in the Department of Justice.”


—Aruna Viswanatha and Peter Nicholas contributed to this article.

Write to Erica Orden at erica.orden@wsj.com and Nicole Hong at nicole.hong@wsj.com