Posted by Sources with links to the intelligence community report that Federal Marshals executed two search and seizure warrants at Trump Tower on Friday, May 19.
One of the warrants covered an electronic storage space in Trump Tower. Several electronic items were seized as a result of this search.
Another of the warrants, sources report, was served on Paul Manafort’s apartment in Trump Tower.
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Unlike the first warrant, this warrant was served, sources say, with “consent.” That means that Mr. Manafort is almost certainly co-operating with Federal authorities.
The Trump Data team worked out of Trump Tower. Separate sources, with links to the intelligence and law enforcement communities, report that the FBI is looking at photographs posted publicly on Twitter by members of that team that appear to show a Python server connection loading on the screens of one of the Trump data team workers.
These same sources have confirmed my April reporting that the Russian Alfa Bank server, with an ip address in Trump Tower, was communicating with Russia and Spectrum Health, and that it was ‘washing’ hacked U.S. State voter database information with the social media ‘fake news’ botnet for micro-targeting to voters. There will be a separate piece of analysis on how this might relate to the ‘electronic devices’ that were seized on Friday afternoon, 19 May. Sources report that this was done ‘very quietly’, in an attempt to evade detection by the press.
The servers and data in Trump Tower, and the items taken from Manafort’s apartment, may form part of the “secure communications channel” that Kushner wanted to establish with Russia. I broke on November 7th that a FISA warrant had been secured on any US person’ in relation to two Russian banks, Alfa Bank – with whom the server was communicating – and SVB Bank. SVB Bank, which had a deal with Sberbank, is implicated in the meeting Kushner had with Gorkov. Further to that, Avi Berkowitz, who was on the Trump Data team, working with Boris Epshteyn and Brad Parscale, formed a go-between for Kushner and the Russian Ambassador.
My earlier exclusive report stated that the Kelhios botnet for which the Russian hacker Pyotr Levashov was indicted, was run out of Trump Tower with a ‘command and control server.’
The Trump sons, Eric and Donald Trump Jr., were interviewed by the FBI, sources say, the day before James Comey was fired. This is because, sources linked to the intelligence and law enforcement communities say, they are suspected of being complicit in the Kelhios botnet’s repurposing to service and pay both pro-Russia and pro-Trump Twitter and facebook bots, but also to deliver ‘fake news’, loaded with malware, and to pay those spreading it through bitcoin transactions.
One of the reasons James Comey was illegally fired by Trump was that his investigation was at the point of interviewing Trump’s own sons. For the avoidance of doubt, White House sources report that Donald Trump himself is considered by investigators to be directly complicit in Russia’s hack of the American election, and Trump fears that the FBI has data-based evidence that will prove this.
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