re: FBI conducted pre-dawn raid of Manafort's home in late July.

It's definitely possible. At this point this case is like a counter-intelligence case married to a mob case. For example, Manafort tried to do deal on the Drake Hotel with Dmytro Firtash who the DOJ calls high-level Russian organized crime. Trump has worked real estate deals to Felix Sater who has his own Russian mob connections.

USA Today

But I hope they're looking into the aspect of the story of why pro-Russian oligarchs who were suing Manafort for the $9.9 million they say he owed them stopped coming after that money after December 2015 and what if anything the Russians hoped to get out of that from his unpaid(!) work for the Trump campaign (e.g. getting the pro-Ukrainian plank removed from the party platform, etc.).

quote:

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There is no indication from the financial statements that the loans had been repaid as of the time they were filed in December 2015...

Mr. Deripaska appears to have stopped pursuing his court action against Mr. Manafort and his former investment partners, Rick Gates and Rick Davis, in late 2015.

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NYT, 7.19.17