FBI agents woke up Paul Manafort during raid by knocking on his bedroom door
As more details come in about the FBI’s pre-dawn raid on Paul Manafort’s home, it’s become clear just how aggressive the agents were in making sure they got what they came for – and perhaps in sending a message to Donald Trump in the process. Hours after the Washington Post first reported the raid, ABC News is now reporting that a dozen FBI agents woke Manafort by knocking on his bedroom door – raising questions about just what all transpired.
ABC News is reporting that “Manafort was awoken by a group of armed FBI agents knocking on his bedroom door as they executed the warrant on July 26” (link). So assuming that Manafort doesn’t sleep with the front door to his house unlocked, how did the agents manage to get through the front door while he slept? Did they silently dismantle the front door? Was there a maid or butler who let them in after being shown the warrant?
In any case, what is clear is that the FBI didn’t come loudly banging on the front door of the house, which almost certainly would have woken up Paul Manafort no matter where in the house he was sleeping. This suggests that the agents took advantage of the opportunity to seize whatever documents and evidence they may have come for before they decided to go ahead and wake up Manafort by knocking on his bedroom door.
Manafort has known for some time that he’s under criminal investigation, and he had to have expected something like this would have happened eventually. But still, it must have been a sight to see when those FBI agents knocked on Manafort’s bedroom door in order to wake him up. More importantly, this all reveals that Special Counsel Robert Mueller, who oversaw the FBI raid, is taking an aggressive stance on these matters. If Mueller is going this hard after Manafort in plain view, he must be going after Donald Trump at least as aggressively behind the scenes.
