The Impeach-O-Meter is a wildly subjective and speculative daily estimate of the likelihood that Donald Trump leaves office before his term ends, whether by being impeached (and convicted) or by resigning under threat of same.
Here’s what we’ve learned in the last few hours:
- Former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort was subject to a court-approved wiretap as part of a federal investigation which began in 2014 into his work as a political consultant in the Ukraine. While that wiretap was dropped because it was not yielding evidence, Manafort was then wiretapped again last fall “because of intercepted communications between Manafort and suspected Russian operatives, and among the Russians themselves, that reignited [FBI] interest in Manafort.” That’s according to CNN, which notes that Manafort was known to be in touch with Donald Trump during this second wiretap period despite having stepped down from his campaign by that point. The network also reports that the FBI apparently searched a storage unit belonging to Manafort at some point earlier this year. (It’s been previously reported that one of Manafort’s residences in Virginia was raided in July.)
- Robert Mueller’s investigators have “told Mr. Manafort they planned to indict him.” That’s per the New York Times.
Seems like a meter-raising kind of night, eh?
Photo illustration by Natalie Matthews-Ramo. Photos by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images, Win McNamee/Getty Images, Chris Kleponis-Pool/Getty Images, Drew Angerer/Getty Images, and Peter Parks-Pool/Getty Images.
