(CNN) Paul Manafort has asked a federal judge in DC to dismiss the five criminal charges against him, arguing that special counsel Robert Mueller had no right to indict him for work done before he joined the Trump campaign as chairman in 2016.

"Those issues simply have no connection to the alleged coordination with the Russian government or the 2016 presidential election," Manafort's lawyer wrote in a motion to dismiss the case filed Wednesday. Though Manafort's team acknowledged that the Justice Department had told Mueller to prosecute any criminal action he discovers while investigating possible Russian collusion, "It is a blank check the special counsel has cashed, repeatedly," Manafort's filing said.

Manafort then asked the court on Wednesday to throw out a conspiracy money laundering charge he faces, as well as the government's request for him to forfeit assets and property. He argues that even if he failed to register to lobby in the US for foreign governments, he didn't make his consulting income illegally. Foreign lobbying registration violations compose most of his DC criminal indictment -- though allegations that he laundered money through foreign bank accounts to avoid paying taxes are part of a separate case he faces from Mueller in Virginia.

He also asked the court to dismiss one of two charges he faces alleging he made false statements in registering his foreign lobbying work, because they are duplicative, he said. He currently faces five criminal counts in the case, so if the judge agreed to these additional requests, his charges would be cut down to three.

The arguments outlined Wednesday to throw out the entire case largely track with an earlier lawsuit Manafort filed against Mueller, Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein and the Justice Department, for going outside the scope of the special counsel's authority. A hearing in that case, before the same judge overseeing Manafort's criminal case, is set for April 4.

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