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In both criminal cases, Manafort has asked the courts to dismiss the charges on the grounds that Rosenstein’s May 17, 2017 appointment order hiring Mueller runs afoul of Justice Department rules on special counsels.

He has also argued that Mueller’s case against him has nothing to do with Russian interference in 2016 election, and that the probe by the FBI into his Ukraine dealings predates the Russia probe.

Jackson was not moved by any of Manafort’s assertions.

“Manafort was, at one time, not merely ‘associated with,’ but the chairman of, the Presidential campaign, and his work on behalf of the Russia-backed Ukrainian political party and connections to other Russian figures are matters of public record,” she wrote, adding that it was “logical” for investigators to probe Manafort’s dealings.

Her ruling also pointed to an August 2017 memo by Rosenstein that further detailed the scope of the probe. That memo explicitly gave Mueller authority to probe all of Manafort’s Ukraine-related work predating the 2016 campaign.

Republicans in the House of Representatives who are critical of the Mueller probe have pressed the Justice Department in recent months to provide them with an unredacted copy of the August memo.

The ruling marks a setback for Manafort, who last month was buoyed when the judge in the Alexandria case aggressively questioned prosecutors about whether their case was overly broad and mused that he believed they were using the charges to get Manafort to turn over dirt on Trump.

That judge, T.S. Ellis III for the Eastern District of Virginia, has yet to rule on whether to dismiss the charges against Manafort.

Ellis, who was appointed to the bench by Republican President Ronald Reagan, has also said he too wants to see an unredacted copy before he can fully form a decision on whether to dismiss the charges.

Quote (Goomshill @ May 15 2018 05:09pm)

The multiple-jurisdiction thing gives my civil libertarian spidey sense tingling. If the DC circuit judge rules in favor of the scope and virginia district judge rules its not in scope, what happens?
what stops a prosecutor from spreading out 10 charges across 10 districts and fishing for the most advantageous court?

Quote (Thor123422 @ May 15 2018 05:13pm)

Wouldn't it just go to a higher Court?

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In denying Manafort’s request to dismiss his DC case judge writes in her opinion “The Special Counsel would have been remiss to ignore such an obvious potential link between the Trump campaign and the Russian government.”

Quote (IceMage @ May 15 2018 07:55pm)

Yep.

Quote (Ghot @ May 15 2018 07:14pm)

That judge that said that was appointed by Obama. Maybe there's more to what she said than meets the eye.