Former Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort on Wednesday filed a motion in federal court seeking to dismiss charges against him, saying that the special counsel had exceeded his authority by charging Manafort with crimes not related to Russian meddling in the 2016 election, APA reports quoting Reuters.
In a 46-page filing with the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, Manafort’s attorney Kevin Downing said Manafort had been threatened with additional indictments and “faces a game of criminal-procedure whack-a-mole” by Special Counsel Robert Mueller, “whose massive resources he cannot possibly hope to match.”
Under the terms of Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein’s order in May appointing Mueller, the special counsel can probe links or coordination between Trump’s campaign and Russia as well as “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 conspiracy to launder money, conspiracy against the United States and failing to register as foreign agents of Ukraine’s former pro-Russian government.
Gates, a former Trump aide, pleaded guilty last month to lying to investigators and conspiring to defraud the United States.
The filing said the special counsel should only be concerned with issues involving Russian meddling in the election. Instead Mueller has been given a blank check for a wide-ranging investigation. “It is a blank check the special counsel has cashed, repeatedly,” it said.
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