On Tuesday, Democratic Senator Richard Blumenthal told Politico that he’s “99 percent sure there will be some criminal charges” from Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s probe into Russian interference in the 2016 election.
According to Blumenthal, Paul Manafort, Trump’s former campaign chairman, and Michael Flynn, Trump’s former national security adviser, “are the most prominent”, but “there may well be others” who are indicted.
The Hill states that the federal government “reportedly wiretapped Manafort during and after the 2016 election cycle.” The FBI obtained a warrant to surveil him last year. The FBI allegedly raided his home in July, and told him that he should expect to be indicted.
When people chant LOCK HIM UP, I get so confused. Are they referring to Flynn, Manafort, Bannon, Priebus, Trump Jr. or Kushner? https://t.co/6jm2r9s2T6
— Ted Lieu (@tedlieu) September 26, 2017
This is not the first time that Manafort has been under FBI scrutiny. He was monitored under a different warrant back in 2014, this time for his business deals with Russian businesses and his lobbying work for Russian political parties.
The FBI has also been looking at Flynn, who stepped down from national security advisor after he misled Vice President Mike Pence about his conversations with Russian officials. According to Business Insider, he recently came under scrutiny once again when House Democrats claimed that he “had failed to disclose a trip he took to Egypt and Israel in 2015 to pursue a joint Russia-Saudi Arabia project ‘to build nuclear reactors in the Arab world.’” Wall Street Journal explains that ethics advisors from the National Security Council warned Flynn not to participate in this project, but he did so anyway.
Flynn has agreed to testify before congressional intelligence committees as long as he is offered immunity from prosecution.
Blumenthal says he is not as certain that Trump will be indicted, but there is a chance.