Manafort asks judge to dismiss some charges in Russia probe, claiming government overreach

President Trump’s former campaign manager Paul Manafort has asked a federal judge to dismiss some of the criminal charges he faces, arguing that special counsel Robert S. Mueller III exceeded his legal authority in bringing criminal cases unrelated to the presidential election.

Manafort filed a motion Wednesday night in U.S. District Court in Washington, one of two federal courthouses where he faces trials this year, saying that Mueller’s team simply dusted off old allegations related to his lucrative consulting work for the Kremlin-backed government in Ukraine from 2006 to 2014.

Defense lawyer Kevin Downing asked the judge to dismiss charges in Washington because they “simply have no connection” to the Trump campaign or to possible coordination between Trump’s aides and a Russian hacking and social media effort during the 2016 race, the chief focus of the Mueller probe .

Manafort made similar claims of prosecutorial overreach in a separate civil lawsuit that is pending against the government. But the Justice Department order appointing Mueller last May gave him authority to prosecute “any matters that arose or arise directly from the investigation,” not just charges related to the campaign or Russia.

Once a prominent Republican operative and a high-flying international consultant, Manafort faces five criminal counts in Washington and another 18 in Virginia for what prosecutors alleged was a complex scheme to hide tens of millions of dollars from U.S. tax authorities. The charges include conspiracy, fraud, money laundering and tax evasion through 2017.

Manafort has pleaded not guilty to all charges and rejected an offer to have the two cases consolidated in one jurisdiction. He is scheduled to go on trial in July in Alexandria, Va., and in September in Washington.

In an order made public Tuesday, U.S. District Judge T.S. Ellis III found that Manafort was a “substantial” flight risk. He ordered him confined to house arrest pending trial.

“Given the nature of the charges against the defendant and the apparent weight of the evidence against him, defendant faces the very real possibility of spending the rest of his life in prison,” Ellis wrote.

Most charges were dropped against Manafort’s former business partner and his deputy in the Trump campaign, Richard W. Gates III, after Gates agreed to plead guilty to two counts and to assist the Mueller investigation.

Downing’s filing also argued that the charges against Manafort are unfair because he had cooperated with an earlier FBI investigation focused on recovering assets in Ukraine. The court papers said Manafort voluntarily met with prosecutors and FBI agents in July 2014, a year before Trump had announced his candidacy.

“In that interview, Mr Manafort provided a detailed explanation of his activities in the Ukraine, including his frequent contact with a number of previous US ambassadors in Kiev and his efforts to further US objectives in Ukraine on their behalf,” the motion says. “But the [Justice Department] did not prosecute Mr Manafort for that conduct.”

The motion says Manafort has been forced into “a game of criminal procedure whack-a-mole against a special counsel whose massive resources he cannot possibly hope to match.”

Mueller’s office said it had no comment in response.

joseph.tanfani@latimes.com

Twitter: @jtanfani