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There's another bombshell development in the Russia investigation — here's what we know
The FBI raided the Alexandria, Virginia, home of former Donald Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort in the predawn hours of July 26. The raid was prompted by the special counsel investigation led by Robert Mueller. (Spencer Platt/Getty Images)

There's another bombshell development in the Russia investigation — here's what we know

FBI agents raided the home of former Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort on July 26 — just one day after Manafort was voluntarily interviewed by the Senate Intelligence Committee, the Washington Post reported Wednesday.

Jason Maloni, a spokesman for Manafort, confirmed the raid happened last month in the pre-dawn hours. The Post reported the raid occurred at Manafort's home in Alexandria, Virginia. Maloni said that Manafort fully cooperated with agents during the operation.

Manafort had been asked to hand over documents related to the committee's investigation into alleged Russian meddling in the 2016 U.S. elections and the Trump campaign's collusion with the Kremlin. Manafort appeared to cooperate with the Senate committee's request for documents.

The investigation that reportedly prompted the July 26 raid, however, is the special counsel investigation led by former FBI Director Robert Mueller. Because the special counsel investigation is separate from the Senate Intelligence Committee investigation, it's focus could be different. Therefore, the documents requested by each investigative body may also vary.

In other words, just because Manafort voluntarily handed over documents to the Senate Intelligence Committee does not necessarily mean he was forthcoming with documents in the special counsel's probe, or even that the special counsel's probe was looking for the same documents.

It was not immediately clear whether any new documents were recovered from the raid. The Washington Post reported that the search warrant, which was legally required to conduct the raid, was "wide-ranging." The newspaper also reported that investigators "may have argued to a federal judge they had reason to believe Manafort could not be trusted to turn over all records in response to a grand jury subpoena."

Late last week, multiple outlets reported that Mueller impaneled a grand jury to look into the July 2016 meeting between Manafort, Donald Trump, Jr., and a Kremlin-linked Russian lawyer.

According to an email chain released by Trump Jr., the meeting was accepted based on the premise that the Russian lawyer had incriminating information about then Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton.

Amid a media firestorm last month, Trump Jr. dismissed the July 2016 meeting as a "nothing."

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