Noah Feldman, Columnist

Manafort's Lawsuit Finds Trump in a Strange Spot

The president has ultimate authority over the Justice Department, yet he can't make this case disappear.

January 3, 2018 at 10:00 PM UTC

Noah Feldman is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist. A professor of law at Harvard University, he is author, most recently, of “To Be a Jew Today: A New Guide to God, Israel, and the Jewish People."

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Paul Manafort’s lawyers deserve points for creativity. They filed a lawsuit Wednesday against the Department of Justice and special counsel Robert Mueller alleging that the Mueller investigation is going beyond the limits of exploring connections between Russia and the Donald Trump presidential campaign. As a remedy, they’re asking for the federal indictment against Manafort, Trump’s former campaign chairman, to be dismissed.

Legally, Manafort’s suit is vacuous -- for a deliciously ironic reason. As a constitutional matter, Manafort was charged with crimes not by Mueller or his team, but by the executive branch of the United States: that is, by President Trump, acting through the Department of Justice.