Federal judge questions Mueller’s case against Manafort

A federal judge in Virginia raised questions Friday about whether special counsel Robert Mueller exceeded his authority in pursing charges against former Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort. Mueller has charged Manafort in Virginia with tax and bank fraud. In a separate case brought in Washington, D.C., Manafort faces charges of conspiring to launder money and failing to register as a foreign agent as he lobbied lawmakers on behalf of the pro-Russia Ukrainian government. But none of those alleged crimes relates to Russia’s meddling in the 2016 U.S. presidential election, U.S. District Judge T.S. Ellis noted, raising questions about whether Mueller should be involved in the case: “I don’t see what relationship this indictment has with anything the special counsel is authorized to investigate.” Ellis has asked for an unredacted version of Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosentein’s memo outlining the scope of Mueller’s investigative mandate. Manafort’s attorneys have tried to get the charges against him dismissed, arguing Mueller overstepped his bounds.