The Russia Investigations: Bad Week For Manafort, Social Networks In The Hot Seat

Last week in the Russia imbroglio: Donald Trump's former campaign chairman, Paul Manafort, got some bad news; members of Congress put social networks, including Facebook and Twitter, under the interrogation lights; and with all these many lawyers now running around — the meter is running too.

Much more below.

The Russia story is so vast, has been running for so long — and may continue for so much longer — that NPR journalists have been getting an update inside the newsroom every day to try to keep them in step. On the theory that other readers also might find the reports useful, here's a version of our newsletter called "The Daily Imbroglio," which also includes a look back at events from the past week you might have missed.

Reports: U.S. Government Surveilled Manafort ... Sometime ... Somewhen

Donald Trump's onetime campaign chairman, Paul Manafort, was under U.S. government surveillance at some point, according to reports this week — although they do not agree as to the particulars. CNN was first out of the gate with its story about surveillance on Monday, which called what the FBI or other spy agencies were doing "a wiretap." The eavesdropping took place before, during and after the campaign, according to CNN.

CBS News also cited a source confirming CNN, but not many other news organizations reported this development. That stood until Friday, when the Wall Street Journal's Shane Harris reported that the U.S. put Manafort under surveillance after he resigned from the Trump campaign in August of 2016.

But the monitoring the Journal describes is very different. Not a "wiretap" like you might have seen on The Sopranos, where FBI agents listen in real-time, but surveillance after the fact, "possibly by obtaining copies of his emails and other electronically stored communications, or by having agents follow him or conduct physical searches of his property."

NPR has not confirmed any of these reports, and U.S. government officials have declined to comment about these kinds of law enforcement operations. A spokesman for Manafort, Jason Maloni, told NPR's Geoff Bennett that if the stories are true, it's evidence of abuse of power by then-President Obama and also evidence of criminal leaking by whatever sources revealed the surveillance was taking place.

Why would the Feds want to spy on Manafort? Former U.S. intelligence officials, including ex-CIA Director John Brennan, have said they've documented evidence of a lot of clandestine communications between people in Trumpworld and Russians. The latest data point came on Wednesday, when the Washington Post reported that Manafort had offered a private briefing on the U.S. election to to Oleg Deripaska, a Ukrainian billionaire friend of Russian President Vladimir Putin. The FBI wants to know whether Manafort was colluding with the Russians whose interference in the U.S. was aimed at helping Trump be elected.

That's one example of what are believed to be tens of thousands of emails and other documents the Trump campaign has given congressional investigators looking into the Russia imbroglio — but it also confirms what Brennan and others have suggested. The frustration in trying to understand this story from the outside is how more evidence is deemed classified, possibly from Congress or the Justice Department, which U.S. spy agencies might not want to reveal because it compromises the sources or methods they used to collect it.

In Manafort's particular case, investigators' focus appears to be on alleged money laundering, foreign advocacy or other such crimes — sources told The New York Times that prosecutors working for Justice Department special counsel Robert Mueller have warned Manafort they intend to indict him.

Next In The Hot Seat: Facebook And Twitter

Russian influence-mongers used more overt tools to attack the election last year than anyone first appreciated, including Facebook ads, public accounts (of fake Americans) and others. And as NPR's Ryan Lucas reports, members of Congress want answers about what social media platforms knew at the time about what was happening — and what they've learned in retrospect.

"The moves on Capitol Hill follow concerns that the social media giants have been less than forthcoming about how Russia may have used their platforms to try to undermine the American election," Lucas writes.

"Facebook has acknowledged that it sold ads to some 500 fake Russia-linked accounts between 2015 and 2017. The ads addressed socially divisive issues like gun control, immigration and race relations. It also conceded in a statement that it may discover more."

The Intelligence Committee's leaders, North Carolina Republican Sen. Richard Burr and Virginia Democratic Sen. Mark Warner, had been turning up the heat on Facebook especially: The social behemoth had shown the content of some ads to committee staffers in a briefing, but not permitted the Hill investigators to keep them. Burr and Warner said they wouldn't abide any deflection or soft-pedaling, so Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg said Thursday the company would turn over the contents and cooperate with the congressional investigations. More from Facebook.

The Intelligence Committee has scheduled a hearing about the social media aspect of the Russian influence campaign for next month. And ahead of that, representatives for Twitter — much smaller in terms of users and business throw-weight, but still highly visible in key areas — are set to meet with the Intelligence Committee next week.

Here's what Facebook does not want: Regulations it considers onerous. So company leaders are expected to go along to get along in the hope that if they're cooperative and forthright, Congress will not mandate restrictions on the way it does business. That might not be good enough for Warner, however, who has broached the idea of new requirements for disclosures about ad-buyers or other such new policies.

All These Lawyers Are Getting Expensive

President Trump and several administration officials have retained their own lawyers in the Russia matter, and all that advice is not cheap. So donors are covering the costs: The Republican National Committee has directed more than $427,000 to attorneys representing Trump and Donald Trump Jr., Matea Gold reported in the Washington Post.

Separately, family members of former Trump national security adviser Mike Flynn announced on Monday that they have set up a legal defense fund to help Flynn continue to pay the lawyers helping him in the Russia matter. Joe Flynn and Barbara Redgate, Flynn's brother and sister, made a case based on Flynn's record of service.

"Mike devoted 33 years of his life to our country serving in the United States Army, spending years away from his family while he fought this nation's battles overseas, including the war on terror," they wrote.

Attorneys say Flynn's fund will not accept contributions from foreign nationals, anonymous givers or Trump's business or campaign. But the fund is not expected to disclose how much it raises or the identities of its donors, as NPR's Tom Bowman reported.

Briefly:

Mueller Wants White House Phone Records

Justice Department special counsel Robert Mueller has asked the White House for records specifically about President Trump's role in drafting Donald Trump Jr's initial statement about the June 2016 meeting between campaign aides and a Russian delegation, reports Josh Dawsey for Politico.

Meaning what? Trump had a hand in drafting the original statement that said Trump Jr., Manafort and Trump son-in-law Jared Kushner met with Russians to talk about "adoptions." But "adoptions" is the code word that Russians use when they talk about the 2012 sanctions imposed by the U.S. under the Magnitsky Act. So Mueller wants to know who in the White House was involved, what discussions took place and what the intentions of the principals were.

Rosenstein: Trump Knew Comey Ouster Wouldn't End Russia Probe

Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein has told Mueller's team that he believes Trump knew he'd encounter a political backlash by firing FBI Director James Comey, but that he didn't expect it would end the Russia investigation, report Aruna Viswanatha and Del Quentin Wilber for the Wall Street Journal.

Meaning what? Mueller is reported to be weighing whether Trump has obstructed justice: Comey said the president asked him to ease off of Flynn, there are reports he also asked other intelligence agency bosses how to get the FBI off the case and then Trump went ahead and fired Comey. Although Trump has said in subsequent interviews that he fired Comey (among other reasons) because of the whole "Russia thing," Rosenstein may be trying to put in a word for his boss. He could be making the case, in so many words, that Trump isn't guilty of obstruction because he didn't actually expect that getting rid of Comey would get rid of the Russia matter.

Howard Students to Comey: You, Sir, Are Not Our Homey

The former FBI director addressed the students of Howard University in Washington, D.C. on Friday, Sept. 22, in the first of what's set to be a series of speeches as he takes a lecturer post there. Comey has built a relationship with the president of the historically black university because, in part, he wanted to bring more non-white recruits into the FBI.

It did not go over well, as NPR's Ryan Lucas reports: Protesters interrupted with chants of "no justice, no peace" and "James Comey, you're not our homey." They also sang the civil rights song "We Shall Not Be Moved."

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