Trump-Russia figure says he’s about to get raided by the FBI

| 12:22 am EDT August 20, 2017
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When the FBI raided Paul Manafort’s house, it was the first such instance for a figure in the Trump-Russia scandal, but it was nearly a given that it would not be the last. Now another figure in the scandal, who has refused to cooperate with the investigation, has stated that he’s been told his home is about to get raided by the FBI.

As far as Trump-Russia figures go, Charles C. Johnson may not be the most prominent of names. But that could be about to change. He’s the political pundit who helped arrange this past week’s meeting between Republican Congressman Dana Rohrabacher and WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange. Rohrabacher and Assange both act as puppets of the Russian government, and the meeting has come under instant scrutiny in the Trump-Russia investigation. Yahoo News reported on Friday that Johnson had told them he would refuse to cooperate with the Senate Intelligence Committee’s requests for more information (link), saying “They’re going to have to subpoena me and then they’ll be sorely disappointed.” Now Johnson is putting things in much more stark terms.

On his Facebook page on Friday night, Charles C. Johnson posted “I’m told I am likely to be raided by the FBI soon. This could get interesting” (link). He didn’t elaborate further. It would seem highly unlikely that the FBI would tip him off to an impending raid in advance. It’s not clear if he’s stating that the Senate Intel Committee has warned him that he’s about to get raided as a way of trying to motivate him to cooperate, or if he’s stating that someone else has tipped him off to an impending FBI raid in an attempt at helping him prepare for what’s coming.

Johnson presents himself as a political journalist, and appears to be trying to use journalistic privilege to fend off the Trump-Russia investigation. But he brokered a rogue meeting between a U.S. Congressman in Rohrabacher who’s gone rogue, and an international fugitive in Assange who has waged cyberterrorism against the United States on behalf of the Russian government. With his claim that he’s been told he’s about to get raided by the FBI, this storyline is obviously still developing.