Suspicious Box At Paul Manafort's Brooklyn House Deemed Safe

CARROLL GARDENS, NY — A suspicious box found outside disgraced Trump campaign aide Paul Manafort's Carroll Gardens brownstone was deemed safe, the NYPD said. A police spokeswoman said a construction worker found the box partially buried in the ground outside the 377 Union St. house that Manafort allegedly used to defraud banks.

The questionable box was reported to police just before 2 p.m. but the bomb squad determined it wasn't dangerous about an hour later, the spokeswoman said. No one was evacuted because of the incident, she said.

The wooden box had "American Fascism" written across the front and contained a pin that read "God Bless America," a police source told the Daily Beast.

Manafort, who served a stint as President Donald Trump's campaign chairman in 2016, is currently in jail awaiting trial on charges including money laundering. His was among the first indictments handed down in Special Counsel Robert Mueller's probe into Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election.

Manafort bought the Carroll Gardens home and another property in SoHo with money from secret offshore bank accounts used in connection with his lobbying for the Russian-backed Ukranian government, prosecutors have said.

Neighbors last year complained the neglected house had become an "eyesore" as it purportedly underwent renovations. The city Department of Buildings slapped the property with two violations in late November, including one for work without a permit.

(Lead image: Photo by Marc Torrence/Patch)