Trump’s ex-campaign manager Manafort sues Special Counsel Robert Mueller
WASHINGTON: President Donald Trump’s former campaign manager Paul Manafort (pictured) sued Special Counsel Robert Mueller on Wednesday, alleging that his office’s investigation into possible collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia exceeds its legal authority.
The lawsuit could be the first legal test of how far Mueller’s mandate extends, a question that is critical to his investigations into Manafort’s and others’ financial, real estate and other dealings.
Under the terms of Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein’s order in May appointing Mueller, the special prosecutor not only can probe links or coordination between Trump’s campaign and Russia but also can look into “any matters that arose or may arise directly” from the investigation.
Mueller’s office indicted Manafort and his business partner Rick Gates in October on charges including con- spiracy to launder money, conspiracy against the United States and failing to register as foreign agents of Ukraine’s former pro-Russian government.
Manafort’s civil lawsuit, filed in US District Court for the District of Columbia, accuses 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.”
“The investigation has focused on Mr Manafort’s offshore business deal- ings that date back to as early as 2005 — about a decade before the Trump presidential campaign launched,” the lawsuit said.
It added that Manafort voluntarily disclosed all of the information about his Ukraine work to the Justice Department in July 2014 as part of a since-closed investigation into stolen assets.
In addition to the indictments of Manafort and Gates, Mueller’s office has secured guilty pleas for lying to the FBI from Trump’s former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn and former campaign aide George Papadopoulos.
Both those cases, unlike the Manafort indictment, relate to Flynn and Papadopoulos’ communications with Russians during their work for the Trump campaign. Manafort’s indictment made no reference to any activity related to his work on the Trump 2016 presidential campaign.