Mueller’s attorneys went to federal court to explain how they have not overstepped their authority with their witch hunt, but the judge wasn’t buying it and told them that their case against Manafort was overreaching since it occurred 10 years before the Trump campaign and hr accused them of unlawful tactics in order to go after the president.
Federal Judge T.S. Ellis order Mueller to produce the original source document unredacted so that he can decide if there is an overreach and if it was by Mueller or by Rosenstein. Either way, it could close the investigation.
Mueller’s attorney Dreeben tried to explain why the 10-year-old case against Manafort was relevant but the judge shot him down and reminded him that the charges against Manafort have nothing to do with Russian collusion.
Mueller has two weeks in order to produce the source document or he will lose the case. This should prove to be interesting
From CNN
“You don’t really care about Mr. Manafort’s bank fraud,” Ellis said to prosecutor Michael Dreeben, at times losing his temper. Ellis said prosecutors were interested in Manafort because of his potential to provide material that would lead to Trump’s “prosecution or impeachment,” Ellis said.
“That’s what you’re really interested in,” said Ellis, who was appointed by President Ronald Reagan.
Ellis repeated his suspicion several times in the hour-long court hearing. He said he’ll make a decision at a later date about whether Manafort’s case can go forward.
“We don’t want anyone in this country with unfettered power. It’s unlikely you’re going to persuade me the special prosecutor has power to do anything he or she wants,” Ellis told Dreeben. “The American people feel pretty strongly that no one has unfettered power.”
When Dreeben answered Ellis’ question about how the investigation and its charges date back to before the Trump campaign formed, the judge shot back, “None of that information has to do with information related to Russian government coordination and the campaign of Donald Trump.”