Manafort fails in second bid to suppress storage-unit evidence

A U.S. district judge on Monday denied a second request by President Trump’s former campaign chairman Paul Manafort to disregard evidence seized from his storage unit in May, Bloomberg reported.

Special counsel Robert Mueller is using documents obtained by his team of investigators from Manafort’s Virginia storage unit to accuse Manafort of bank and tax fraud.

Though Manafort has tried to suppress the evidence in court twice now, both attempts have failed.

Manafort claims the evidence was taken without his permission and that an FBI agent convinced one of his employees to give investigators access to the storage unit.

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District Court Judge Amy Jackson in June denied this claim, stating “law enforcement agents do not need a warrant to enter a location if they have voluntary consent.”

This time around, U.S. District Judge T.S. Ellis III reiterated that argument.

“There are no grounds for suppression of the evidence recovered from the May 27, 2017 search of the storage unit,” Ellis said, according to Bloomberg.

Manafort has pleaded not guilty to several charges in Mueller’s federal investigation, including money laundering, tax fraud and bank fraud conspiracy.

He is also being charged in Washington, D.C., with money laundering, acting as an unregistered agent of Ukraine and obstruction of justice.

Mueller’s investigation has resulted in 20 indictments and five guilty pleas so far.