Judge challenges Mueller's actions in Manafort case

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U.S. District Court Judge T.S. Ellis said Robert Mueller's team seemed to be pursuing the case in the hope that Paul Manafort will testify against others including President Donald Trump. | J. Scott Applewhite/AP Photo

Judge challenges Mueller's actions in Manafort case
'I don't see what relation this indictment has with what the special counsel is authorized to investigate,' the judge says.
By JOSH GERSTEIN 05/04/2018 11:36 AM EDT Updated 05/04/2018 04:00 PM EDT
https://www.politico.com/story/2018/05/04/mueller-challenged-manafort-case-568935

   A federal judge sharply challenged special counsel Robert Mueller's
   prosecution team Friday, questioning how its indictment of former Trump
   campaign chairman Paul Manafort on financial charges relates to
   Mueller's core mandate to investigate alleged 2016 Russian election
   interference.
   
   U.S. District Court Judge T.S. Ellis said Mueller's team seemed to be
   pursuing the case — which involves bank and tax fraud — in order to
   "tighten the screws" on Manafort, in the hope that he will testify
   against others including President Donald Trump.
   
   "I don't see what relation this indictment has with what the special
   counsel is authorized to investigate," Ellis said during an hourlong
   hearing in Alexandria, Virginia. "You don't really care about Mr.
   Manafort's bank fraud. ... What you really care about is what
   information Mr. Manafort could give you that would reflect on Mr. Trump
   or lead to his prosecution or impeachment."
   
   The 77-year-old appointee of President Ronald Reagan went on to
   colorfully describe what he thinks Mueller's team is up to with the
   pressure it is putting on Manafort.
   
   "The vernacular is to 'sing,' is what prosecutors use. What you got to
   be careful of is they may not only sing, they may compose," Ellis said.
   
   Despite the prickly, often-hostile reception Ellis gave prosecutors
   Friday, he issued no immediate ruling on a defense motion to toss out
   the case over Mueller's alleged excesses. At times, the judge suggested
   he may conclude that Mueller's initial jurisdiction when he was
   appointed last May was effectively expanded at a later point to cover
   the case he brought against Manafort in Virginia in February.
   
   Some of the grilling Ellis gave Mueller's team signaled that the judge
   has been following news coverage of the Trump-Russia probe. The judge
   questioned why Mueller's office was directly pursuing the bank fraud
   charges against Manafort, but had handed off an investigation of
   Trump's personal lawyer Michael Cohen to prosecutors in Manhattan.
   
   "Why in New York did you feel it was not necessary to keep that, but it
   was necessary to keep this bank fraud, which I think manifestly has
   nothing to do with the campaign?" Ellis asked. "Why is New York
   different?"
   
   Deputy Solicitor General Michael Dreeben, a veteran Justice Department
   lawyer assigned to assist Mueller's office, confirmed that the Mueller
   team handed off some matters to prosecutors in New York, but suggested
   they didn't relate to the special counsel's core focus.
   
   "We take very seriously the primary mission that was assigned to
   us....We are focused on that mission," Dreeben said. "We are not going
   off the range that the acting attorney general authorized us to
   do....We followed the money into the transactions that led to the
   charges here."
   
   Ellis said he was wary of the notion that Mueller's team can pursue any
   case it wishes.
   
   "What we don't want in this country, we don't want anyone with
   unfettered power," the judge said. "It's unlikely you're going to
   persuade me the special counsel has unlimited powers to do anything her
   or she wants."
   
   During a trip to Dallas on Friday to address the National Rifle
   Association, Trump seized on news reports about the skepticism the
   judge expressed.
   
   Calling the judge "really something special, I hear," and "a respected
   person," Trump said Ellis validated his view that Mueller's goal was to
   pressure figures like Manafort to make damaging claims about Trump or
   others on the campaign.
   
   "I've been saying that for a long time. It's a witch hunt," the
   president said, reading a news account of the hearing. "None of that
   information has to do with Russian government information and the
   campaign of Donald Trump. It doesn't have anything to do. It's from
   years before."
   
   Trump also offered praise for Manafort, whom he effectively fired in
   August 2016.
   
   "He was there for a short while but he's a good person, I really
   believe he's a good person," Trump said. "We're all fighting battles,
   but I love fighting these battles. It's really a disgrace."
   
   At the morning hearing in Alexandria, Ellis suggested on two occasions
   that the case against Manafort could be reassigned to prosecutors for
   the U.S. Attorney's Office in Alexandria, although it was not clear how
   seriously he was considering that possibility or whether he thought he
   had the authority to require such a move.
   
   Manafort's defense attorney, Kevin Downing, urged the judge to toss out
   the indictment or, at least, to demand more documentation from the
   Justice Department about how Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein
   decided to appoint Mueller last May and what was in the special
   prosecutor's scope at that time.
   
   Downing also encouraged Ellis to reject the Mueller team's arguments
   that defendants have no right to insist that the Justice Department
   follow regulations governing the appointment of special prosecutors. He
   noted that the regulations were published to assure the public about
   what process would be followed in sensitive cases.
   
   "It's as if they hoodwinked the entire United States," Downing said. "I
   don't think that can stand, your honor."
   
   Ellis seemed to agree that the Justice Department was obliged to abide
   by its own policy. He urged Dreeben to shift his focus to Rosenstein's
   May directive. "I think you're better off arguing it's very broad," the
   judge said.
   
   Dreeben insisted that Rosenstein's May 17 order was not a detailed
   description of the scope of authority Rosenstein gave to Mueller.
   However, Dreeben was vague about whether any other written
   documentation was created on the subject before an August 2 memo that
   the Justice Department included in heavily-redacted form in a court
   filing last month.
   
   "We did acquire the various investigatory threads that relate to Mr.
   Manafort, upon appointment of the special counsel," Dreeben said.
   
   Ellis ordered that an unredacted version of that August memo be filed
   with him within two weeks, although he said it may be submitted under
   seal and without sharing it with Manafort's defense team.
   
   Dreeben said nothing else in the memo related to Manafort, but the
   judge said he'd decide.
   
   "I'll be the judge of what relates to the other," the judge said curtly.
   
   Manafort, a longtime lobbyist and political consultant in the U.S. and
   abroad, faces two criminal indictments. One case originally filed in
   Washington, D.C. last October, charges him with money laundering and
   failing to register as a foreign agent for Ukraine. The case before
   Ellis, filed in February, charges Manafort with bank fraud, tax evasion
   and failing to report overseas bank accounts.
   
   "There's no mention in the indictment of any Russian individuals or any
   Russian bank or any payment to Manafort by the Russians," the judge
   noted.
   
   Dreeben never directly responded to Ellis' suggestion that Mueller's
   team was trying to pressure Manafort to cooperate against Trump or
   others.
   
   "Our investigative scope covers the activities that led to this case,"
   Dreeben said.
   
   "It covers bank fraud in 2005 and 2007?" Ellis replied incredulously,
   in just one of several instances where the judge snapped at the
   longtime prosecutor.
   
   At another point, when Dreeben seemed to be taking too long to address
   the judge's point about pressuring Manafort, Ellis interrupted and
   raised his voice.
   
   "I asked you, where am I wrong about that?" the judge said sternly.
   
   At another juncture, Ellis chastised some of Mueller's lawyers for
   nodding while at the counsel table. "Don't nod or shake your head," he
   told them, adding later, "Don't worry about it. It's not a big deal."
   
   Mueller's team, who appeared unaccompanied at a hearing in March, were
   joined Friday by an Alexandria-based public corruption and financial
   crimes prosecutor, Assistant U.S. Attorney Uzo Asonye.
   
   Ellis seemed pleased with that development. "I indicated the special
   counsel should have local counsel. And that's you," the judge said.
   
   A trial in the Virginia case is set for July 10.
   
   This article tagged under:
   * Donald Trump | * Robert Mueller | * Paul Manafort "

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Special counsel Robert Mueller's team proposed that both sides file briefs on the issues of whether Concord has been properly served, with the government filing on May 25 and Concord's lawyers weighing in by June 15. | Evan Vucci/AP Photo

Judge rejects Mueller's request for delay in Russian troll farm case
Russian firm linked to Putin's chef accuses special counsel of 'pettifoggery.'
By JOSH GERSTEIN 05/04/2018 06:56 PM EDT Updated 05/05/2018 06:37 PM EDT
https://www.politico.com/story/2018/05/04/mueller-russia-interference-election-case-delay-570627

   A federal judge has rejected special counsel Robert Mueller's request
   to delay the first court hearing in a criminal case charging three
   Russian companies and 13 Russian citizens with using social media and
   other means to foment strife among Americans in advance of the 2016
   U.S. presidential election.
   
   In a brief order Saturday evening, U.S. District Court Judge Dabney
   Friedrich offered no explanation for her decision to deny a request
   prosecutors made Friday to put off the scheduled Wednesday arraignment
   for Concord Management and Consulting, one of the three firms charged
   in the case.
   
   The 13 people charged in the high-profile indictment in February are
   considered unlikely to ever appear in a U.S. court. The three
   businesses accused of facilitating the alleged Russian troll farm
   operation — the Internet Research Agency, Concord Management, and
   Concord Catering — were also expected to simply ignore the American
   criminal proceedings.
   
   Last month, however, a pair of Washington-area lawyers suddenly
   surfaced in the case, notifying the court that they represent Concord
   Management. POLITICO reported at the time that the move appeared to be
   a bid to force Mueller's team to turn over relevant evidence to the
   Russian firm and perhaps even to bait prosecutors into an embarrassing
   dismissal in order to avoid disclosing sensitive information.
   
   On Friday, Mueller's prosecutors disclosed that Concord's attorneys,
   Eric Dubelier and Kate Seikaly, had made a slew of discovery requests
   demanding nonpublic details about the case and the investigation.
   Prosecutors also asked a judge to postpone the formal arraignment of
   Concord Management set for next week.
   
   The prosecution team sought the delay on the grounds that it's unclear
   whether Concord Management formally accepted the court summons related
   to the case. Mueller's prosecutors also revealed that they tried to
   deliver the summonses for Concord and IRA through the Russian
   government, without success.
   
   "The [U.S.] government has attempted service of the summonses by
   delivering copies of them to the Office of the Prosecutor General of
   Russia, to be delivered to the defendants," prosecutors wrote. "That
   office, however, declined to accept the summonses. The government has
   submitted service requests to the Russian government pursuant to a
   mutual legal assistance treaty. To the government's knowledge, no
   further steps have been taken within Russia to effectuate service."
   
   Mueller's team sent a copy of the formal summons to Dubelier and
   Seikaly and asked them to accept it on behalf of Concord Management,
   but Dubelier wrote back on Monday saying that the government's attempt
   to serve the summons was defective under court rules. He did not
   elaborate.
   
   The three companies named in the indictment are all reported to be
   controlled by a Russian businessman known as Russian President Vladimir
   Putin's "chef," Yevgeny Prigozhin. He's also one of the 13 individuals
   criminally charged in the case.
   
   In their request on Friday to put off the arraignment, prosecutors
   included the extensive demands for information that the lawyers for
   Concord Management have set forth since they stepped forward last month.
   
   "Until the Court has an opportunity to determine if Concord was
   properly served, it would be inadvisable to conduct an initial
   appearance and arraignment at which important rights will be
   communicated and a plea entertained," attorneys Jeannie Rhee, Rush
   Atkinson and Ryan Dickey wrote. "That is especially true in the context
   of this case, which involves a foreign corporate defendant, controlled
   by another, individual foreign defendant, that has already demanded
   production of sensitive intelligence gathering, national security, and
   foreign affairs information."
   
   The Mueller team proposed that both sides file briefs in the coming
   weeks on the issues of whether Concord has been properly served.
   
   In a blunt response Saturday morning, Concord's attorneys accused
   Mueller's team of ignoring the court's rules and suggesting a special
   procedure for the Russian firm without any supporting legal authority.
   
   "Defendant voluntarily appeared through counsel as provided for in
   [federal rules], and further intends to enter a plea of not guilty.
   Defendant has not sought a limited appearance nor has it moved to quash
   the summons. As such, the briefing sought by the Special Counsel's
   motion is pettifoggery," Dubelier and Seikaly wrote.
   
   The Concord lawyers said Mueller's attorneys were seeking "to usurp the
   scheduling authority of the Court" by waiting until Friday afternoon to
   try to delay a proceeding scheduled for next Wednesday. Dubelier and
   Seikaly complained that the special counsel's office has not replied at
   all to Concord's discovery requests. The lawyers, who work for
   Pittsburgh-based law firm Reed Smith, also signaled Concord intends to
   assert its speedy trial rights, putting more pressure on the special
   counsel's office to turn over records related to the case.
   
   Friedrich, a Trump appointee based in Washington, sided with Concord
   and said the arraignment will proceed as scheduled Wednesday afternoon.
   
   The indictment, obtained by Mueller but announced by Deputy Attorney
   General Rod Rosenstein, accused the defendants of mounting an
   "information warfare" operation in connection with the 2016 election.
   
   The IRA, long suspected of ties to the Kremlin, allegedly used social
   media, email and other means to manipulate "unwitting" American
   citizens and Trump campaign officials into protests, demonstrations and
   the recirculation of media messages. Most of the interventions were
   intended to benefit Trump or demean his Democratic opponent, Hillary
   Clinton, the indictment alleged.
   
   This article tagged under:
   * Russia | * Federal Courts | * Robert Mueller | * Vladimir Putin |
   * Trump Russia scandal | * Rod Rosenstein "