U.S. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson has denied former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort’s motion to dismiss criminal charges against him brought by special counsel Robert Mueller in Washington.
“[T]he indictment falls squarely within that portion of the authority granted to the Special Counsel that Manafort finds unobjectionable: the order to investigate ‘any links and/or coordination between the Russian government and individuals associated with the campaign,'” Jackson wrote Tuesday, citing Mueller’s original appointment order by Deputy Attorney General Rod last May.
Manafort Indicment Ruling by Washington Examiner on Scribd
She added that it is “logical and appropriate” for investigators looking at coordination between Russia and the Trump campaign to probe him.
Manafort was the first person indicted by Mueller, in October, on charges of engaging in a conspiracy against the United States, engaging in a conspiracy to launder money, failing to file reports of foreign bank and financial accounts, acting as an unregistered agent of a foreign principal, making false and misleading statements in documents filed and submitted under the Foreign Agents Registration Act, and making false statements to FBI investigators.
He has pleaded not guilty to all charges. In January, he also filed a lawsuit challenging the indictments, saying that Mueller acted outside the scope his appointment and that Rosenstein broke the law when he appointed Mueller.
Rosenstein “expressly approved the Special Counsel’s investigation of the facts alleged in the indictment, so there has been no violation of the regulations, and the Special Counsel did not act without authority,” Jackson wrote on Tuesday.
In April, Jackson also dismissed a civil suit Manafort filed against against Mueller in February.
The trial in Washington is due to begin on Sept. 17.
In addition, Manafort is facing charges brought against him by Mueller that include bank and tax fraud in Alexandria, Va.
Judge T. S. Ellis III of the Eastern District of Virginia set that trial to start on July 10, though he is also weighing Manafort’s motion to dismiss.
