The Department of Justice authorized special counsel Robert Mueller to look into the possible collusion between President Donald Trump’s former campaign chairman, Paul Manafort, and the Russian government.
According to The Associated Press, the detail was included in a court filing Monday night in which Mueller’s team defended its investigation.
The filing says Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein wrote in a memo last year regarding the special counsel’s investigation that Mueller could investigate whether Manafort “committed a crime or crimes by colluding with Russian government officials.”
The AP also reported that Rosenstein, who was the one that appointed Mueller, also said in the memo that the special counsel could look into payments Manafort got from the Ukrainian government when former Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych was in office.
Prosecutors said in their court filing that they would “naturally look into any interactions they may have had before and during the campaign to plumb motives and opportunities to coordinate and to expose possible channels for surreptitious communications.”
“And prosecutors would naturally follow the money trail from Manafort’s Ukrainian consulting activities,” they wrote.
The filing is a result of Manafort’s request that a judge should dismiss the indictment against him regarding activities prior to the 2016 presidential election because Mueller had exceeded his authority.
Manafort was indicted last year on money laundering charges and other alleged financial crimes.
Mueller is currently investigating Russian election interference and possible ties between the Trump campaign and Moscow. The special counsel investigation has indicted several other close associates to Trump as well as more than a dozen Russians.
Richard Gates who was also part of Trump’s campaign has pleaded guilty and now is cooperating with special counsel Robert Mueller’s team.
Trump has repeatedly dismissed the probe as a witch hunt and has denied collusion between his campaign and Russia.
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