Ex-DOJ official calls out Paul Manafort’s lawyers for trying to get Trump to fire Mueller

Former Trump campaign chair Paul Manafort has asked a federal judge to dismiss some of the charges against him -- but a former Justice Department spokesman said the request was desperate and "silly."

Manafort, who faces more than 300 years in prison on money laundering and other charges, and his attorneys argued that special counsel Robert Mueller had exceeded his authority by investigating alleged crimes beyond collusion between Russia and the Trump campaign.

"This is such a silly filing by Paul Manafort," said former Justice Department spokesman Matthew Miller, now an MSNBC analyst.

"It's pretty obvious that Bob Mueller is acting completely within his mandate," Miller said. "The mandate makes clear he can look at anything else that arises from the investigation, and his supervisor, (deputy attorney general) Rod Rosenstein, has made it abundantly clear a number of times that he is closely coordinating with him. Any time he's gone into a new area he's gotten his supervisor's approval to do so."

He said that, even in the unlikely event Manafort's latest filing was successful, the same charges could be brought against him in another court, but the filing could also be a signal to President Donald Trump.

"One way to look at this is a legal hail Mary that will never succeed," Miller said. "The other way to look at it, though, I think, is a direct appeal from Manafort and his attorney to the president, (that) this is a special prosecutor who is out of control, who is out of his jurisdiction, who is, you know, roaming all over the place and is going to bring danger to you eventually. He ought to be stopped, he ought to be fired, he ought to be removed -- or pardon me. I think that's the strategy he's pursuing more than any kind of legal strategy."