Manafort Seeks to Suppress Evidence Taken From Virginia Home

(Bloomberg) -- Paul Manafort filed a motion to suppress evidence obtained from his home in Alexandria, Virginia, saying the search warrant used to collect the evidence was overly broad and violated his constitutional rights.

• FBI agents who executed the search exceeded the warrant’s parameters, according to a filing Monday
• The Special Counsel didn’t have the authority or jurisdiction to apply for the search warrant, Manafort said in the filing
• Agents sought evidence of purchases, including a Bijan Black Titanium “Royal Way” watch that cost $21,000, according to an affidavit in support of a search warrant application attached to the court filing
• Manafort gave a witness a bag of computers and asked the witness to wipe the drives clean before giving them to charity, the affidavit shows
• The government has “improperly retained” everything it seized for almost nine months, according to the court filing
• NOTE: Manafort Says FBI Illegally Searched Storage Unit for Evidence
• The case is U.S. v. Manafort, 1:17-cr-00201, U.S. District Court, District of Columbia (Washington)

To contact the reporter on this story: David Voreacos in federal court in Newark, New Jersey, at dvoreacos@bloomberg.net.

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Elizabeth Wollman at ewollman@bloomberg.net.

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