Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., on Sunday slammed the federal judge overseeing special counsel Robert Mueller’s case against former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort after the judge questioned how much money Mueller was spending as part of his investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election.
“I’m not sure that it’s germane, for example, for the judge to be asking how much Bob Mueller has spent on the investigation,” Schiff said during an interview with CNN’s “State of the Union.”
“It’s appropriate to ask about the scope of what Bob Mueller is doing, but he is well within the scope of his jurisdiction in charging Manafort and [former national security adviser Michael] Flynn and the others,” the ranking member on the House Intelligence Committee continued.
U.S. District Judge T.S. Ellis III, the federal judge hearing Manafort’s matter, pressed Justice Department lawyers on Friday to explain why they think they hadn’t exceeded the scope of Mueller’s probe into Russia meddling, openly wondering if their real objective was to pressure Manafort to flip on Trump.
But Schiff said the judge’s comments would only concern him if they influenced his “review of the facts and the law” of Mueller’s case against Manafort.
“While certainly within the judge’s prerogative to ask these questions, I don’t think it really bears on the legal issues and so I think that Bob Mueller will prevail in the sense of being able to go forward with this litigation. I don’t think there is legal question about that,” he added.
Rep. Adam Schiff says a federal judge’s skepticism of the Mueller probe into Paul Manafort’s alleged bank fraud is concerning “if it influences the judge’s review of the facts and the law” #CNNSOTU https://t.co/W90ERv9pZU https://t.co/eJ3yjAkJ93
— CNN Politics (@CNNPolitics) May 6, 2018
Manafort, 69, has pleaded not guilty to the 18-count indictment lodged against him by Mueller, which includes charges of tax and bank fraud.
