CNN: Federal Judge Rejects Manafort Attempt to Dismiss Criminal Case

RUSH EXCERPT:

PEREZ: "The federal judge says Manafort's claim that the special counsel's overstepped his bounds are completely without merit. She says that Paul Manafort should prepare to go on trial in September here in Washington. He's facing charges both here and in northern Virginia. Let me read to you a little bit of what the judge had to say about this. She said, who had connections to the Russian government, who attended meetings on behalf of the campaign? Given the combination of his prominence within the campaign and his ties to Ukrainian officials supported by an operating out of Russia as well as to Russian oligarchs, Manafort was an obvious person of interest. The special counsel would have been remiss to ignore such an obvious potential link between the Trump campaign and the Russian government. Wolf, this case has garnered a lot of criticism of the special counsel simply because it predates a lot of the campaign. It has nothing to do presay with the Russian government. Manafort's lawyer's and some of the president's supporters have pointed out that, you know, there's no allegation in here of him directly in contact with people associated with the Russian government. The special counsel counters that by saying that he was working for the Ukrainians, some of which had ties to the Russian government, people who were working as undercover spies so to speak for the Russian government. He's facing trial here in Washington in September. A judge in Virginia is going to hear similar -- is hearing similar requests from Manafort to dismiss those charges. He's scheduled for trial there in July. Manafort has pleaded not guilty in both courts on these cases -- charges."