By Dan Calabrese ——Bio and Archives--January 4, 2018
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I don't know if Paul Manafort can win this suit, but the very fact that he's filing it means we've reached a point where someone has decided to stand up to one of these special counsels - an investigator no one can limit or fire, because politics decided that making the man "independent" was more important than safeguaring the rights of people who might become his targets.
Robert Mueller is out of control. But every independent counsel ends up that way. They're given carte blance to investigate a given matter, but they're also told that if they uncover any evidence along the way of unrelated crimes, that's fair game too. In other words, the scope of their assignment is really limited only by the bounds of their imaginations. No one has demonstrated there is any evidence the Trump campaign colluded with Russia, and none of the charges brought to date are even tangentially related to such a scenario.President Trump's former campaign chairman Paul Manafort sued the Justice Department and special counsel Robert Mueller on Tuesday, arguing that Mueller exceeded his authority by indicting him on conspiracy and money laundering charges unrelated to Russia's interference in the 2016 election. Manafort's unusual court filing also claimed that Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, who appointed Mueller last May, had no authority to grant the special counsel "carte blanche to investigate and pursue criminal charges in connection with anything he stumbles across while investigating, no matter how remote" from the examination of Russia's election meddling. Manafort, who was charged in October along with former campaign aide Rick Gates, is asking the court to effectively nullify the charges against him – and stop Mueller's investigation from ranging beyond matters directly related to Russia's interference.
"Mr. Mueller’s investigation of Mr. Manafort has extended far beyond links and/or coordination between the Russian government and individuals associated with the campaign of President Donald Trump," the lawsuit states. "The investigation has focused on Mr. Manafort’s offshore business dealings that date back to as early as 2005—about a decade before the Trump presidential campaign launched—and have been known to the United States government for many years." Instead, Manafort charges, Mueller's team "constructed an indictment" based on Manafort's failure to file required reports outlining his work for the government of Ukraine.Manafort will be asking a judge to limit the scope of Mueller's investigation to the Trump/Russia collusion question only. I don't know if a judge can or will do that, but if not, the Justice Department should. No special counsel should be given unlimited authority to investigate anything he wants with no oversight or accountability, and that's exactly the situation in which we now find ourselves with Mueller. I don't believe it's ever wise for the Justice Department to shirk its own investigative duties and appoint a special investigator who doesn't have to answer to anyone. Investigating crimes is the job of the Justice Department and its investagative division, which is the FBI. If they can't do the job either because they're compromised or because they have a conflict of interest, then Congress has the power to issue subpoenas and get to the bottom of a matter. No matter what happens in this case, Manafort took an important step forward by challenging Mueller's unlimited power in the matter. A Manafort win in this case would be a victory for every American.
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Dan Calabrese’s column is distributed by HermanCain.com, which can be found at HermanCain
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