Paul Manafort's defense team argues that elastic language in Rod Rosenstein's official appointment order gives Mueller a kind of free rein that Justice Department regulations are supposed to foreclose. | Drew Angerer/Getty Images Manafort seeks dismissal of D.C. Mueller indictment

The indictment that former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort faces on charges of money laundering and failing to register as a foreign agent is fatally flawed because of defects in the appointment of Special Counsel Robert Mueller, Manafort's attorneys argued in a new court filing Wednesday night.

In a motion seeking dismissal of all five charges pending against Manafort in federal court in Washington, lawyers for the former Trump aide and veteran lobbyist contend that Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein gave Mueller too much authority when he was appointed last May.


Manafort's attorneys note that the alleged unregistered lobbying took place years before the Trump campaign and has no connection to the core issue Mueller was named to look into: alleged collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia.

Manafort's defense team argues that elastic language in Rosenstein's official appointment order gives Mueller a kind of "carte blanche" that Justice Department regulations are supposed to foreclose.

"Granting the Special Counsel jurisdiction ex ante to pursue any matters 'that arose or may arise directly from the investigation' bypassses the required consultation, it bypasses the Attorney General's issue-specific determination; and, with those, it bypasses the decision by a politically accountable official that the Special Counsel regulations were designed to ensure," lawyers Kevin Downing and Thomas Zehnle wrote. "That further power is not merely tantamount to a blank check. It is a blank check the Special Counsel has cashed repeatedly."

Downing and Zehnle also argue that Mueller's investigative work is so far ranging that it has exceeded even the broad authority Rosenstein purported to give to the former FBI director and U.S. Attorney.

The claims in the new motion to dismiss echo the arguments in a civil suit Manafort filed in January. That case has been transferred to U.S. District Court Judge Amy Berman Jackson, the same judge handling the criminal case aganst Manafort in Washington.

Justice Department lawyers have defended the legality of Mueller's appointment. In addition, government attorneys have argued that Manafort has no legal standing to challenge internal Justice Department regulations that essentially allocate work among federal prosecutors.

Rosenstein said in an interview Monday that he is supervising Mueller's activities.

"The special counsel is not an unguided missile," Rosenstein told USA Today.

Manafort's lawyers also filed separate motions Wednesday night challenging specific charges in the D.C. indictment.

One motion, joined by new Manafort attorney Richard Westling, asks Jackson to throw out the money laundering charge because the alleged scheme involving offshore accounts didn't advance illegal activity and because the relevant crime was not the foreign lobbying work, but Manafort's failure to register as a foreign agent. That failure alone did not produce any revenue, the defense filing argues. That submission also seeks to strike a provision in the indictment that would require Manafort to surrender all proceeds of the alleged scheme.

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Manafort's defense also argues two of the five counts Manafort currently faces in D.C. are duplicative because both stem from the same allegedly false statements submitted to the Justice Department's Foreign Agent Registration Act office.

Jackson has scheduled an April 19 hearing on the motions filed Wednesday. The trial date in the case is set for September 17.

The motions do not affect 18 tax fraud, bank fraud and overseas bank account reporting-related charges Mueller's team brought against Manafort in federal court in Virginia last month. However, Manafort's defense team has signaled it plans to file similar challenges there.

"Mr. Manafort ... faces a game of procedural whack-a-mole against a Special Counsel whose massive resources he cannot possibly hope to match," the broad motion to dismiss filed Wednesday said.

Judge T.S. Ellis III has set a July 10 trial date for the Virginia case, putting it on track to go before a jury months before the D.C. charges.