Paul Manafort plans to sue Special Counsel Robert Mueller and Department of Justice (DOJ) Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, claiming that the special counsel investigation has an overly broad mandate and that the charges against him do not relate to his time as President Trump’s campaign manager.
Manfort, Trump’s former campaign manager, argued in his lawsuit that the DOJ gave Robert Mueller too much power to investigate matters beyond the scope of alleged collusion between the Trump campaign and Russian government.
Trump’s former campaign manager pled not guilty to the charges laid against by Mueller, which includes alleged conspiracy against the United States and money laundering in relation to his consulting work in Ukraine.
Manafort’s attorneys’ wrote in their lawsuit, “The principle that government must be both limited in power and accountable to the people lies at the core of our constitutional traditions. That principle must be zealously guarded against creeping incursions.”
The lawsuit added, “The investigation of Mr. Manafort is completely unmoored from the Special Counsel’s original jurisdiction to investigate ‘any links and/or coordination between the Russian government and individuals associated with the campaign of President Donald Trump.'”
“It has instead focused on unrelated, decade-old business dealings—specifically, Ukraine political campaign consulting activities of Mr. Manafort,” the lawsuit continued.
A DOJ spokeswoman said in response to the lawsuit, “The lawsuit is frivolous but the defendant is entitled to file whatever he wants.”
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