‘Trump was right!’ Twitter goes wild after CNN admits FBI wiretapped Trump aide Manafort

A report claiming that the US government wiretapped US President Donald Trump’s former campaign manager Paul Manafort created quite a stir on social media, with many claiming it vindicates Trump’s earlier claim about being under surveillance.

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FBI raided Manafort’s home for documents he gave Congress

CNN released the bombshell report, which cites “three sources familiar with the investigation,” late Monday. 

According to the report, the FISA court authorized a “secret order” to monitor Paul Manafort back in 2014. Surveillance was discontinued “at some point last year [2016] for lack of evidence,” CNN said, citing one of the sources. However, the FBI restarted the surveillance and extended the warrant at least into early 2017.

Federal agents also searched “a storage facility” which belonged to Manafort, but so far it is unknown what they may have found.

The report claimed that conversations between Trump and Manafort continued “after the President took office [in January 2017], long after the FBI investigation into Manafort was publicly known.” They only stopped at the insistence of Trump’s and Manafort’s lawyers.

Manafort, a long-time Washington lobbyist and political consultant, joined Trump’s presidential campaign in March 2016. He was also present in a June 2016 meeting between Donald Trump Jr. and Russian lawyer Natalia Veselnitskaya, which she says was misrepresented by the US media. 

READ MORE: 'Story of my meeting with Trump Jr. has been manipulated’ - Russian lawyer Veselnitskaya

According to CNN, the second warrant “was part of the FBI’s efforts to investigate ties between Trump campaign associates and suspected Russian operatives.” However, no evidence of any improper contacts between Trump campaign officials and the Russian government has yet been released.

'Trump was right'

When the story hit the headlines, people on social media recalled Trump’s claims made back in March, claiming that former President Barack Obama had his “’wires tapped’ in Trump Tower just before the victory.”

“Nothing found. This is McCarthyism!” Trump wrote at the time. “Is it legal for a sitting President to be ‘wire-tapping’ a race for president prior to an election?”

Many people on Twitter slammed CNN, saying that Trump was “right about wire-tapping.”

“The FBI hacking of Manafort is merely a witch hunt,” one person said.

Obama spied

Angry CNN followers lashed out at Barack Obama, saying that the former president committed “treason.” It was Obama who spied on Trump and it was “never about the Russians,” people wrote.

Some people pointed out that it was the FBI that wiretapped Manafort, not Obama himself.

‘CNN is fake news & enemy of people’

Irate social media users also targeted CNN, calling them “fake news.”

Others said CNN should apologize to Trump for presenting his ‘Obama-wiretapped-me’ comments as a false claim.

Some commented that CNN “has been forced” to say that Trump was right.

And some people just can’t wait to see where the Manafort wiretapping story is going to lead.