What Happened

On Jan. 3, it was revealed the Paul Manafort was suing the Justice Department to nullify his indictment. His lawsuit is based on the grounds that Robert Mueller had supposedly overstepped the scope of the Russia investigation when charging him. Manafort argues that due to the long time differential between the beginning of his activities and when he was charged, the charges could not stem from the Russia investigation and were so unrelated that Mueller exceeded his authority.

When questioned about this, however, the Justice Department responded by calling the lawsuit “frivolous.” According to court records, the charges Manafort were indicted for are at least as recent as 2016. In addition, Manafort was being investigated as early as 2014 for his political lobbying and money laundering.