Judge denies Manafort’s motion to dismiss indictment

A federal judge on Tuesday declined to dismiss the case brought against former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort in Virginia.

U.S. District Judge T.S. Ellis III denied Manafort’s motion in a court filing, finding no merit in Manafort’s argument that special counsel Robert Mueller did not have authority to charge him with a crime.

Manafort was ordered to jail earlier this month for allegedly violating the terms of his bail agreement by attempting to tamper with witnesses in Mueller’s probe.

{mosads}Ellis rejected Manafort’s assertion that Mueller exceeded the bounds of his intended scope when he charged the former Trump aide with a slew of financial-related crimes regarding his lobbying work for pro-Russia political parties in Ukraine, and unrelated to the campaign.

Mueller, Ellis wrote, is not limited to investigating “federal crimes concerning election interference or collusion.”

Manafort is charged with money laundering, bank fraud and failing to register as a foreign lobbyist. His trial date is scheduled for July 24 in Virginia, and he also faces charges in Washington, D.C., in a case scheduled to go to trial in September.

The former Trump campaign chairman is accused of running a scheme along with a former business associate, Richard Gates, to hide money made from lobbying activities in Ukraine from U.S. authorities by disguising the payments as loans from offshore U.S. entities. Mueller’s team of prosecutors also alleges that Manafort and Gates were involved in a plot to fraudulently secure “more than twenty million dollars in loans,” according to the indictment.

Manafort also faces a forfeiture claim related to the charges that could cost him as much as $30 million, calling upon him to forfeit “any property, real or personal, which constitutes or is derived from proceeds traceable to the offense(s) of conviction” upon conviction.

Gates pleaded guilty earlier this year to the charges against him, while Manafort has denied any wrongdoing. 

The White House has sought to downplay Manafort’s role in the Trump campaign.

Former White House press secretary Sean Spicer referred to Manafort as someone “who played a very limited role for a very limited amount of time” on the campaign during a press briefing last year, noting that Manafort was on the campaign for “just under five months.”

Still, Manafort’s attorneys say they worry his association to the president will taint jurors’ views, and earlier this month asked a judge to bar any mention of President Trump from the Virginia court proceedings.