2016 ELECTION/CAMPAIGN/PAUL MANAFORT/TRUMP AS PRESIDENT: “President Trump’s former campaign chairman, Paul Manafort, sued the special counsel on Wednesday [1-3-17] and asked a federal court to narrow his authority, escalating Republican efforts to discredit an investigation that has stretched longer than the White House expected.
The unusual move comes as Mr. Trump tries to portray the investigation as a politically motivated witch hunt that has cast a dark cloud over his administration and, in his view, the country…
Mr. Mueller is investigating the Russian government’s meddling in the 2016 presidential election and whether anyone close to Mr. Trump was involved. As part of that investigation, prosecutors indicted Mr. Manafort on money laundering charges related to years of foreign lobbying — but not related to Russian election interference or the Trump campaign.
Mr. Manafort argued in the lawsuit that Mr. Mueller had gone too far. He sued both Mr. Mueller and Rod J. Rosenstein, the deputy attorney general who appointed Mr. Mueller. The lawsuit said Mr. Rosenstein had improperly given Mr. Mueller the authority to investigate ‘anything he stumbles across while investigating, no matter how remote.’
A spokesman for Mr. Mueller had no comment on the lawsuit.”
-Matt Apuzzo, “Paul Manafort Sues Mueller and Asks a Judge to Narrow the Russia Investigation,” The New York Times online, Jan. 3, 2017