Skeptical M’fort judge rips Mueller

A Virginia federal judge on Friday sharply questioned special counsel Robert Mueller’s authority to bring tax- and bank-fraud charges against former Trump campaign chair Paul Manafort.

“I don’t see what relationship this indictment has with anything the special counsel is authorized to investigate,” said US District Judge T.S. Ellis III of the Eastern District of Virginia, where Manafort (right) has filed a motion to have the charges dismissed.

“You don’t really care about Mr. Manafort,” Ellis said of Mueller’s team. “You really care about what information Mr. Manafort can give you to lead you to Mr. Trump and an impeachment, or whatever.”

President Trump, meanwhile, reiterated his oft-repeated charge that the Mueller investigation was a “witch hunt.”

Speaking at an NRA convention Friday in Dallas, Trump said Ellis “suggested the charges . . . were just part of Mueller’s team’s designs to pressure Mr. Manafort into giving up information on President Trump or others in the campaign.”

The Virginia indictment alleges Manafort hid from the IRS mil- lions of dollars he earned advising pro-Russia politicians in Ukraine before Trump ran for president.

During the hearing in Alexandria, Manafort’s lawyers said the charges in the 18-count indictment go far beyond the special counsel’s mandate to probe Russian meddling in the 2016 election.

Ellis said it was implausible to think the allegations — stemming from Manafort’s business dealings and tax returns from about 2005 through 2015 — could have real ties to Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign.

The judge suggested that Mueller was pursuing Manafort to pressure him to “sing” against the president, although Ellis acknowledged that such a strategy was a “time-honored practice” for prosecutors.

Federal prosecutor Michael Dreeben argued that Mueller’s mandate is broad and that Manafort fits within its jurisdiction because of his ties to both the Trump campaign and to Ukrainian and Russian officials.

“We needed to understand and explore those relationships and follow the money where it led,” Dreeben said.

Ellis withheld ruling on the motion and will issue a written ruling at a later date.