Your last sentence seems to be a completely separate argument from the rest of what you write here, and also seems to be incorrect. Mueller was in private practice and was appointed to prosecute a specific set of possible crimes. I highly doubt if he can “prosecute any crime he sees fit”.
As for the argument that others at the DOJ can prosecute these crimes, I would guess that this is correct but that Manafort and/or his lawyers believe that Mueller is being particularly aggressive and that another DOJ prosecutor would probably not take it up.
All that said, ISTM that Manafort is extremely unlikely to prevail in this. (Possibly he’ll use it as grounds for appeal.)
And keeping this separate from his criminal case is an attempt to keep Donald out of this. They don’t want him to have to get near a court room. So Manafort challenges Mueller & the DOJ’s authority to investigate his money laundering activities, which they turned up while investigating Russian collusion, in a move separate from the collusion investigation. This way, for the scope of this lawsuit, the focus is solely Manafort, not Trump, the Trump Campaign or collusion.
But if they can get lucky and find a conservative judge to rule in their favor, and say that Mueller is not authorized to act on any of the money laundering charges that have turned up in the collusion investigation, then Donald can move to have any money laundering charges files against him thrown out on the same grounds, and without having to get Donald to testify to anything.
It won’t win on the merits, but they can appeal it up the ladder, and hope that the conservative judges on the Supreme Court will loyally protect Donald.
By having Manafort lead the charge on this lawsuit, Donald can get the benefit of ruling without having to put himself forward as an interested party.
The Office of Special Counsel is an office of the United States Department of Justice. Under DOJ regulation 28 CFR Part 600 the Special Counsel has “the full power and independent authority to exercise all investigative and prosecutorial functions of any United States Attorney.”
It’s not going anywhere period. This is not an uncommon tactic, to sue your prosecutor in another court, but it’s simply not allowed. If there is a reason to throw out the charges against you, it has to be done in the court where your trial is being held or you have to show a good reason why that court is not acceptable such as the trial judge being corrupt or whatever. Manafort’s lawsuit doesn’t even allege that the trial court is unacceptable. This is like getting a traffic ticket and going to divorce court to explain all the reasons you shouldn’t have to pay it.
“any links and/or coordination between the Russian government and individuals associated with the campaign of President Donald Trump,” along with “any matters that arose or may arise directly from the investigation”. The latter clause is what likely dooms the argument. But not even Mueller is arguing that he can investigate anything that he sees fit. (I believe Manafort is arguing that the mandate to investigate “any matters that arose or may arise directly from the investigation" is overly broad under the statute which allows for the appointment of independent counsels, but I’m guessing that won’t cut it either.)
I believe that just means that once he is empowered to investigate something, he has full investigative and prosecutorial powers, e.g. subpoena, grand jury, indictment etc.
Trump doesn’t know what Bannon said or didn’t say. But in any event, whatever you personally believe is most likely might not be conclusive in court.
It seems to be universally noted among those close to Donald is that he does not read anything. Even bullet points are too much for his attention span. How did he manage to get through high school, let alone college, with such disdain for reading and a total lack of curiosity?
If you could point to the section of 28 CFR Part 600 that limits which crimes can be charged, that’d be great.
The only semi-limiting language says that if the Special Counsel find something unrelated to their investigation, they will consult the attorney general as to whether it’s better that they prosecute it or turn it over to someone else. But this is just for administrative purposes so the special counsel isn’t required to waste time on a side quest.
I hadn’t realized Mueller was arguing anything. Could you point us to his argument?
If you watch videos of him speaking from 20 years ago, it’s night and day, at least for me. I think it’s likely that he was once a relatively sharp guy, even if he was still a narcissistic egomaniacal abuser of women. Now, perhaps, all that sharpness is gone, and all that remains is the egomania and bad feelings.
But good heavens, it seems like he could not focus for the length of a multiple choice exam. You have to read some and study some to get through, yet he has the attention span of a fruit fly.
Donald Trump, simply put, has lived his entire life as a complete scam artist and fraud. In one of the history’s greatest ironies, the only reason we ever heard about Donald Trump in the context of anything beyond a massive failure after the year 1995 is the fact that he had so much debt that it was worth it to creditors to negotiate better bankruptcy terms - and that his name brand was (for reasons that only make sense to people who lived through the 1980s) valuable enough for Trump to make royalties. He’s not a successful businessman; he is successful at marketing and making such a great spectacle of himself that he puts people’s asses in seats. He’s a showman. A forerunner to today’s YouTube star. He’s not really good with money, but he has - like a welfare cheat - figured out (barely legal and probably blatantly illegal) ways to use modern systems of global finance and the tax code to keep his yacht afloat. Sorry if I sound like a broken record but I really go back to what I believe is his greatest fear of the Mueller probe: that court documents will reveal that he owes hundreds of millions (or more) in debt to Russian thugs and that he’s a fake billionaire. He’s afraid that some plumber in Toledo will eventually realize that he’s actually a better businessman that Donald Trump.