today, a federal judge in virginia expressed skepticism whether special counsel mueller the authority to bring charges against manafort that were not directly related to collusion. of course, trump loved that the jung was tough on the prosecutors. but the judge did not issue his ruling today whether any of those charges will be dismissed. the question is, what does today's hearing mean for the mueller probe. to help us answer that question and more, i'm joined by legal analyst jill wine-banks, form area siftent watergate special prosecutor and harry sen dick in the criminal division for the southern district of new york. harry, i'm going to come to you first. tell me about this judge. >> judge ellis is a judge in the eastern district of virginia right outside washington, d.c. on the bench for about 30 years. appointed by president reagan in the 1980s. he had the johnny walker lindh case which an cleaned some notoriety in the years after. >> the american taliban case. >> exactly. the american taliban. he's had high profile cases.