{"id":98898,"date":"2018-05-04T18:28:43","date_gmt":"2018-05-04T22:28:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/stateofthenation2012.com\/?p=98898"},"modified":"2018-05-04T18:28:43","modified_gmt":"2018-05-04T22:28:43","slug":"mueller-blasted-by-judge-says-he-has-no-authority-to-prosecute-manafort","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stateofthenation2012.com\/?p=98898","title":{"rendered":"Mueller Blasted by Judge, Says He Has No Authority to Prosecute Manafort"},"content":{"rendered":"<h1>Federal judge accuses Mueller&#8217;s team of &#8216;lying,&#8217; trying to target Trump: &#8216;C&#8217;mon man!&#8217;<\/h1>\n<p><!--more-->By Jake Gibson | Fox News<\/p>\n<h5><script type=\"text\/javascript\" src=\"http:\/\/video.foxnews.com\/v\/embed.js?id=5780476548001&#038;w=466&#038;h=263\"><\/script><br \/>\nFederal judge rebukes Special Counsel Robert Mueller&#8217;s team<br \/>\nDuring a hearing for former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort, U.S. District Judge T.S. Ellis III challenges scope and authority of the special counsel&#8217;s investigation; reaction from Republican Congressman; John Ratcliffe from Texas.<\/h5>\n<p class=\"speakable\">A federal judge on Friday harshly rebuked Special Counsel Robert Mueller\u2019s team during a hearing for ex-Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort \u2013 suggesting they lied about the scope of the investigation, are seeking \u201cunfettered power\u201d and are more interested in bringing down the president.<\/p>\n<p class=\"speakable\">&#8220;You don&#8217;t really care about Mr. Manafort,\u201d U.S. District Judge T.S. Ellis III told Mueller\u2019s team. \u201cYou really care about what information Mr. Manafort can give you to lead you to Mr. Trump and an impeachment, or whatever.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Further, Ellis demanded to see the unredacted \u201cscope memo,\u201d a document outlining the scope of the special counsel\u2019s Russia probe that congressional Republicans have also sought.<\/p>\n<p>The hearing, where Manafort\u2019s team fought to dismiss an 18-count indictment on tax and bank fraud-related charges, took a confrontational turn as it was revealed that at least some of the information in the investigation derived from an earlier Justice Department probe \u2013 in the U.S. attorney\u2019s office for the Eastern District of Virginia.<\/p>\n<p>Manafort\u2019s attorneys argue the special counsel does not have the power to indict him on the charges they have brought \u2013 and seemed to find a sympathetic ear with Ellis.<\/p>\n<p>The Reagan-appointed judge asked Mueller\u2019s team where they got the authority to indict Manafort on alleged crimes dating as far back as 2005.<\/p>\n<h5 class=\"inline image-ct\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/a57.foxnews.com\/images.foxnews.com\/content\/fox-news\/politics\/2018\/05\/04\/federal-judge-accuses-muellers-team-lying-trying-to-target-trump-cmon-man\/_jcr_content\/article-text\/article-par-6\/inline_spotlight_ima\/image.img.jpg\/612\/344\/1525457814815.jpg?ve=1&amp;tl=1\" alt=\"Judge TS Ellis\" \/>Judge T.S. Ellis III rebuked Robert Mueller&#8217;s team.<\/h5>\n<p>The special counsel argues that Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein granted them broad authority in his May 2, 2017 letter appointing Mueller to this investigation.\u00a0But after the revelation that the team is using information from the earlier DOJ probe, Ellis said that information did not \u201carise\u201d out of the special counsel probe \u2013 and therefore may not be within the scope of that investigation.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe don\u2019t want anyone with unfettered power,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>Mueller\u2019s team says its authorities are laid out in documents including the August 2017 scope memo \u2013 and that some powers are actually secret because they involve ongoing investigations and national security matters that cannot be publicly disclosed.<\/p>\n<p>Ellis seemed amused and not persuaded.<\/p>\n<p>He summed up the argument of the Special Counsel\u2019s Office as, &#8220;We said this was what [the] investigation was about, but we are not bound by it and we were lying.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>He referenced the common exclamation from NFL announcers, saying: &#8220;C&#8217;mon man!&#8221;<\/p>\n<div class=\"inline image-ct\">\n<h5 class=\"m\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/a57.foxnews.com\/images.foxnews.com\/content\/fox-news\/politics\/2018\/05\/04\/federal-judge-accuses-muellers-team-lying-trying-to-target-trump-cmon-man\/_jcr_content\/article-text\/article-par-12\/inline_spotlight_ima\/image.img.jpg\/612\/344\/1525450173969.jpg?ve=1&amp;tl=1\" alt=\"Paul Manafort leaves Federal District Court in Washington, Monday, Oct. 30, 2017. Manafort, President Donald Trump's former campaign chairman, and Manafort's business associate Rick Gates have pleaded not guilty to felony charges of conspiracy against the United States and other counts. (AP Photo\/Alex Brandon)\" \/>Trump himself drew attention to the judge\u2019s comments later Friday afternoon, during an NRA convention in Texas.<\/h5>\n<\/div>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s a witch hunt,\u201d he said. \u201cI love fighting these battles.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The judge also gave the government two weeks to hand over the unredacted \u201cscope memo\u201d or provide an explanation why not &#8212; after prosecutors were reluctant to do so, claiming it has material that doesn\u2019t pertain to Manafort.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI\u2019ll be the judge of that,\u201d Ellis said.<\/p>\n<p>House Republicans have also sought the full document, though the Justice Department previously released a redacted version, which includes information related to Manafort but not much else.<\/p>\n<p>The charges in federal court in Virginia were on top of another round of charges in October. Manafort has pleaded not guilty to both rounds. The charges filed earlier this year include conspiring against the United States, conspiring to launder money, failing to register as an agent of a foreign principal and providing false statements.<\/p>\n<p>Earlier this year, Ellis suggested that Manafort could face\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.foxnews.com\/politics\/2018\/03\/13\/manafort-faces-very-real-possibility-life-in-prison-court-order-says.html\">life in prison<\/a>, and \u201cposes a substantial flight risk\u201d because of his \u201cfinancial means and international connections to flee and remain at large.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><i>Fox News\u2019 Brooke Singman and Judson Berger contributed to this report.<\/i><\/p>\n<p>___<br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/www.foxnews.com\/politics\/2018\/05\/04\/federal-judge-accuses-muellers-team-lying-trying-to-target-trump-cmon-man.html\">http:\/\/www.foxnews.com\/politics\/2018\/05\/04\/federal-judge-accuses-muellers-team-lying-trying-to-target-trump-cmon-man.html<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Federal judge accuses Mueller&#8217;s team of &#8216;lying,&#8217; trying to target Trump: &#8216;C&#8217;mon man!&#8217;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-98898","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateofthenation2012.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/98898","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateofthenation2012.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateofthenation2012.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateofthenation2012.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateofthenation2012.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=98898"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/stateofthenation2012.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/98898\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateofthenation2012.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=98898"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateofthenation2012.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=98898"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateofthenation2012.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=98898"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}