Manafort is facing a slew of charges including money laundering and tax and bank fraud.
A federal judge in Washington has tossed former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort’s lawsuit challenging the scope of special counsel Robert Mueller’s authority Russia probe.
Manafort’s attorneys had initially asked U. S. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson to throw out all charges against Manafort, arguing that Mueller had exceeded his authority by bringing charges unrelated to Russian election interference.
Manafort is facing a slew of charges including money laundering and tax and bank fraud related to his work for a Kremlin-connected Ukrainian politician. He has pleaded not guilty.
Jackson decided that Manafort’s issues can be addressed in the criminal proceedings against him.
“A civil case is not the appropriate vehicle for taking issue with what a prosecutor has done in the past or where he might be headed in the future,” Jackson wrote.
She noted that it is well-established law that a court shouldn’t use its powers in a civil case to interfere in a criminal investigation when a defendant has the ability to challenge the prosecution in a criminal case.
Manafort’s attorneys, Kevin Downing and Thomas Zehnle, had pointed to that fact in arguing that Mueller had exceeded his authority by bringing charges unrelated to Russia or the Trump campaign.
Initially, Manafort had asked Jackson to throw out all charges against him and nullify Mueller’s appointment.
But in an April 4 hearing, Downing told Jackson that he was scaling back the civil challenge, and asked only that Jackson nullify a paragraph in Mueller’s appointment order that he believed was overly broad.
They also asked Jackson to issue an order protecting Manafort from future prosecutions by Mueller.
Daniel Schwei of the Justice Department’s civil division argued that previous precedent should guide the judge to throw out the suit.
“This is a collateral civil challenge attacking a criminal prosecution,” Schwei told the judge.
With News Wire Services
