Judge Questions Robert Mueller's Authority to Go After Manafort

U.S. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson has questioned the scope of the authority granted Special Counsel Robert Mueller by Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein.

During a hearing in one of the criminal cases against former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort, Judge Jackson cast doubt upon the directive appointing Mueller and its broad-brush approach to the investigation. Mueller’s directive allows him to probe the alleged connections between Russia and the 2016 Trump presidential campaign, as well as issues that “may arise” in the course of that investigation.

But Justice Department regulations mandate that a directive must describe a “specific factual matter” to the special counsel. “That’s a fair point,” Jackson said when the point was raised by Manafort’s lead defense attorney, Kevin Downing. “I don’t think that, as good as he is, that the deputy attorney general can see into the future.”

It does not, however, seem likely that even questioning the breadth of Mueller’s authority will do anything to save Manafort from his reckoning. He faces 23 counts across two indictments in both Washington and Virgina, including failure to register as an agent of Ukraine, money laundering, bank fraud, tax evasion, and failing to report foreign bank accounts.

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