This whole thing (the Mannafort raid) is going to yield one of two things:
- It's either going to yield a few documents that Mannafort didn't turn over and as such puts him a little bit behind the 8 ball and gives the investigation some legs, not to mention some leverage, against him.
- It is in fact like some are saying: a complete waste of time as all they found were the same documents Mannafort had already turned over to the investigation.
Now, if it's number 2, then Robert Mueller is in a world of shit. If you went in and convinced a judge that Mannafort was hiding something, and you get him to sign off on a warrant, and you come out of there with nothing, you are going to be blackballed out of his courtroom. You'll never get him to sign off on another warrant without smoking gun in hand.
It's one or the other with this move. It's feast or famine. They either come out of it all with leverage on Mannafort, or the entire investigation has just shot itself in the foot with a howitzer.