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Manafort Argues Against Mueller's Reasons to Search Storage Unit

Manafort Argues Against Mueller's Reasons to Search Storage Unit

(Bloomberg) -- FBI agents overstepped their legal authority in searching the northern Virginia storage unit belonging to Paul Manafort’s company, the former campaign chairman for Donald Trump said in a court filing Monday.

The agents improperly conducted a search in 2017 when they convinced a Manafort employee to unlock the unit, Manafort’s lawyers argued in federal court in Alexandria, Virginia. Manafort is charged there with bank and tax fraud. He faces a separate indictment in Washington by investigators led by Special Counsel Robert Mueller charging him with money laundering and failing to register as a foreign agent of Ukraine.

Manafort previously filed court papers to exclude evidence seized in the search. The request is also pending in the Washington case, and a judge will hold a hearing Wednesday.

Manafort has denied the allegations.

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

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Heather Smith at hsmith26@bloomberg.net, David Glovin

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