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Judge Questions Mueller’s Authority to Prosecute Manafort

Federal judge in Virginia challenges scope of special counsel’s charges against ex-Trump campaign chairman.

ALEXANDRIA, Va.—A federal judge Friday questioned Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s authority to bring tax and bank-fraud charges unrelated to the 2016 election against former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort.

Judge T.S. Ellis suggested the charges before the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia were just part of the Mueller team’s designs to pressure Mr. Manafort into giving up information on President Donald Trump or others in the campaign.

“The vernacular is ‘to sing,’” Judge Ellis said, adding that he had “been here a long time” and likening the strategy to prosecuting a drug case for higher-value information.

The judge appeared sympathetic to Mr. Manafort’s efforts to have the charges dismissed, without indicating he was inclined to do so.

Mr. Manafort has been indicted in separate cases in Washington and Virginia over work he did for Russian-backed politicians in Ukraine before the 2016 campaign. Prosecutors allege he failed to report that lobbying work and to pay taxes on millions of dollars in related income, and later falsely inflated his income to obtain $20 million in loans. Mr. Manafort has pleaded not guilty to the charges.

After Mr. Manafort was arraigned on the Virginia charges in March, Judge Ellis said Mr. Manafort “faces the very real possibility of spending the rest of his life in prison,” given “the apparent weight of the evidence against him.”

Mr. Manafort’s legal team has filed to dismiss both cases, arguing that the charges had nothing to do with Mr. Mueller’s mandate of examining Russian interference in the 2016 election.

In a hearing last month, the federal judge overseeing the Washington case was skeptical of Mr. Manafort’s argument. But Judge Ellis, a 1987 appointee of President Ronald Reagan, saved many of his harshest words on Friday for Mr. Mueller’s office.

When Michael Dreeben from the special counsel’s office said the allegations in the Virginia case were covered by the scope of the initial appointment of Mr. Mueller, Judge Ellis retorted, “The scope covers bank fraud from 2005?”

“How does this have anything to do with the campaign?” Judge Ellis asked. After Mr. Dreeben said Mr. Manafort had been in touch with Russia-affiliated people in Ukraine, the judge admonished the prosecutor, saying “You’re running away from my question.”

In court papers, Mr. Mueller’s lawyers have said they have authorization to investigate Mr. Manafort, citing among other things an August memo from Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein laying out avenues of inquiry. Mr. Mueller’s office said the probe “would naturally cover ties that a former Trump campaign manager had to Russian-associated political operatives, Russian-backed politicians, and Russian oligarchs.”

Judge Ellis said Friday it appeared that the special counsel’s office wanted merely to pressure Mr. Manafort to provide information about Mr. Trump or others involved with the campaign.

He also ordered Mr. Mueller‘s office to provide an unredacted copy of the August memo under seal in two weeks. “I’ll be the judge,” he said.

Still, it appeared unlikely Judge Ellis would dismiss the indictment based on Mr. Manafort’s claims, a move that would likely result in another set of federal prosecutors filing similar charges.

Mr. Dreeben said the special counsel’s office takes “very seriously” the “primary mission” it was assigned in examining Russian interference in the 2016 election, adding that if it uncovered criminal activity that wasn’t necessarily related, they would refer it to another office.

Judge Ellis pointed out that the U.S. attorney’s office in Manhattan had obtained one such referral in an investigation into Mr. Trump’s personal lawyer, Michael Cohen.

When Mr. Manafort’s lawyer, Kevin Downing, tried to make the case that Mr. Rosenstein had erred in setting up the special counsel’s office, Judge Ellis interrupted him: “Let me ask you—so what?”

https://www.wsj.com/amp/articles/judge-questions-muellers-authority-to-prosecute-manafort-1525456340