Paul Manafort, who was President Donald Trump’s election campaign manager, on Wednesday filed a motion in federal court demanding for the charges against him to be dismissed, on the grounds of exceeding authority by special counsel Robert Mueller who charged Manafort with crimes that are not related to the Russian meddling in the 2016 election.
According to Reuters, in a 46-page filing with the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, Manafort’s attorney Kevin Downing said Manafort had been threatened with additional indictments and “faces a game of criminal-procedure whack-a-mole” by Special Counsel Robert Mueller, “whose massive resources he cannot possibly hope to match.”
Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein’s order in May appointing Mueller gave the special counsel the authority to probe links or coordination between Trump’s campaign and Russia as well as “any matters that arose or may arise directly” from the investigation.
In October Mueller’s office indicted Manafort and his business partner Rick Gates on charges for conspiracy to launder money, conspiracy against the United States and failing to register as foreign agents of Ukraine’s former pro-Russian government.
Gates, who was a former Trump aide, also pleaded guilty last month to lying to investigators and conspiring to defraud the United States.
Reuters report that the filing said the special counsel should only be concerned with issues involving Russian meddling in the election. Instead, Mueller has been given a blank check for a wide-ranging investigation. “It is a blank check the special counsel has cashed repeatedly,” it said.
“The charges against Manafort simply have no connection to alleged coordination with the Russian government or the 2016 presidential election,” the filing said.
In January, Manafort also filed a civil lawsuit in the District of Columbia federal court charging Rosenstein of exceeding his legal authority to “grant Mr. Mueller carte blanche to investigate and pursue criminal charges in connection with anything he stumbles across.”
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