Federal Judge Casts Doubt On Mueller’s Case Against Manafort

[GMDino]

(05-04-2018, 09:21 PM)StLucieBengal Wrote: http://dailycaller.com/2018/05/04/judge-skeptical-mueller-manafort/

Seems this is falling apart.  Mueller has Two weeks.  

http://thehill.com/regulation/court-battles/387837-judge-rejects-manafort-motion-to-dismiss-russia-probe-charges

Quote:A federal judge on Tuesday rejected former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort's request to toss out five criminal charges against him in special counsel Robert Mueller's Russia investigation.



U.S. District Court Judge Amy Berman Jackson ruled in Washington, D.C., that Mueller had the right to bring the charges against Manafort, shutting down the argument by Manafort's lawyer that they had nothing to do with the Russia investigation. 

Jackson wrote that "the Special Counsel was authorized from the start to investigate the defendant not only for coordinating with the Russian government, but also for violations of law arising out of payments received from the former President of Ukraine." 


The judge maintained that it was appropriate for investigators to look into Manafort's lobbying history while probing possible coordination between Trump campaign associates and Russia, saying the Manafort indictment fell "squarely" in the authority granted to Mueller by the Justice Department.


Manafort's attorneys had argued the special counsel was taking too broad a view of its powers and pushed to remove his indictment on charges of money laundering and failing to register as a foreign agent.


"The appointment order here purports to give the Special Counsel power to investigate a specifically identified matter and anything that arises in the course of the investigation, without further consulting or obtaining approval from the Attorney General or Acting Attorney General," read a filing from Manafort's lawyer earlier this year. "The regulations do not allow for such an expansive appointment."


In April, Jackson also dismissed a civil complaint from Manafort challenging the scope of Mueller's probe.
Manafort has pleaded not guilty to charges of money laundering and conspiracy against the U.S. related to his lobbying work for a Ukrainian political party.


A judge in Virginia, overseeing a separate case against Manafort for possible bank fraud and other alleged financial crimes, expressed deep skepticism earlier this month that charges in that probe were genuinely related to Mueller's investigation.


Manafort is set to go on trial in the Virginia case in July and in the D.C. case in September.

Thought I'd add this little line from another story on the dismissal:

https://www.cnn.com/2018/05/15/politics/manafort-special-counsel/index.html

Quote:"The Special Counsel would have been remiss to ignore such an obvious potential link between the Trump campaign and the Russian government," she wrote later in the opinion.

I'll wait quietly for the "activist judges" post that will now follow....