Manafort challenges Mueller’s authority

President Donald Trump’s former campaign chairman Paul Manafort will try to convince a federal judge on Wednesday to throw out criminal charges filed against him by special counsel Robert Mueller, arguing he has overstepped his legal authority.

Manafort filed a civil lawsuit on January 3 against Mueller and deputy attorney general Rod Rosenstein, the justice department official who appointed him, in a key legal test of how far the special counsel’s mandate extends. Mueller is investigating potential collusion between Trump’s campaign and Russia as well as whether Trump unlawfully tried to obstruct the probe.

Wednesday’s hearing will mark the first time Manafort’s lawyer will get a chance to persuade US district court judge

WASHINGTON:US

Amy Berman Jackson that Mueller’s investigation has run amok and needs to be reined in.

Manafort is one of a number of people already charged in Mueller’s probe, which has hung over Trump’s presidency.

On Tuesday, Alex van der Zwaan, a Dutch lawyer who previously worked closely with Manafort and former Trump deputy campaign chairman Rick Gates, was sentenced to 30 days in prison for lying to Muller’s investigators.

Manafort, who performed lobbying work for a pro-Russian former Ukrainian president before serving as Trump’s campaign chairman in the 2016 US election, is facing an array of charges in two indictments brought by Mueller in federal courts in Washington and Virginia. REUTERS