One week after a Senate committee approved a bill to protect the special counsel from being fired by the president, both of Robert Mueller’s high-profile cases appear to be in legal jeopardy.
On Friday morning, a federal judge accused Mueller’s team of weaponizing its prosecutorial authority in an effort to take down Donald Trump. U.S. District Judge T. S. Ellis III suggested the special counsel’s case against Paul Manafort, Trump’s former campaign manager, is “about what information Mr. Manafort can give you to lead you to Mr. Trump and an impeachment. President Trump’s prosecution or impeachment—that’s what you’re really after.”
ABC News reported that Ellis, a 30-year veteran of the federal bench, repeatedly criticized the 18-count indictment against Manafort for bank fraud and tax evasion as being unrelated to Mueller’s initial directive, which was to investigate alleged collusion between the Trump campaign and the Russian government before the 2016 presidential election.
Ellis pointed out that “the allegations clearly pre-date the appointment of the special counsel. None of it had any relation to the campaign.” He ascribed ulterior motives to Mueller’s investigation: “You get somebody in a conspiracy and then you tighten the screws. I’ve been here awhile, the vernacular is ‘to sing.’”
Justice is Stonewalling
Judge Ellis also might prevail where Congress has so far failed: Obtaining an unredacted version of Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein’sAugust 2017 memo that purportedly widened Mueller’s powers to include non-collusion crimes against Manafort.
On Monday, the Justice Department—citing “long-standing principles of investigatory independence”—declined a request by Republican lawmakers to see a clean copy of the largely blacked-out memo. The dispute devolved into a war of words this week between Rosenstein and some GOP leaders amid impeachment threats and accusations of extortion.