LEGAL/ROBERT MUELLER/RUSSIA INVESTIGATION/TRUMP AS PRESIDENT: “A federal judge appointed by President Donald Trump ruled Monday [8-13-18] that special counsel Robert Mueller’s probe is constitutional and legitimate, rejecting an effort by a Russian company — accused of financing a massive political influence operation in the United States — to stamp out the ongoing investigation. Judge Dabney Friedrich, who Trump appointed to the U.S. District Court of Washington D.C. last year, is the fourth judge to quash efforts to upend Mueller’s legitimacy and cancel his investigation. Judges overseeing the two trials of former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort — D.C. judge Amy Berman Jackson and Eastern District of Virginia Judge T.S. Ellis — rejected Manafort’s bid to invalidate Mueller. Earlier this month, the D.C. circuit’s Chief Judge Beryl Howell issued a lengthy ruling rejecting similar legal arguments offered by Andrew Miller, a longtime associate of Trump confidant Roger Stone, who was attempting to beat back a subpoena to testify before Mueller’s grand jury. Miller’s lawyer, Paul Kamenar, told POLITICO on Monday morning that Miller still intends to appeal the decision. Last week, Miller was held in contempt of court for again ignoring the grand jury subpoena, a move Kamenar said was necessary in order to pursue his appeal. Mueller indicted the Russian company, Concord Management, in February along with 13 individual Russians — including Yevgeny Prigozhin, a close associate of Russian President Vladimir Putin. The indictment alleges that Concord, Prigozhin’s firm, funded and organized an army of internet trolls, the purchase of social media ads and even directed operatives to travel to the United States to set up political rallies. Their goal, Mueller alleged, was to sow discord in the 2016 U.S. election and ultimately assist Donald Trump’s candidacy.”
–Kyle Cheney, “Trump-appointed judge upholds Mueller’s legitimacy,” Politico, August 13, 2018 10:29 am