district of virginia or it can be prosecuted by the special counsel depending on how the jurisdictional statement is written. and i am pretty sure that mr. mueller would not have brought those charges if they weren t within what he had been assigned by mr. rosenstein. but it won t help mr. manafort if for some reason the judge decides that mueller cannot charge him with these crimes. then the eastern district can. crimes have been committed, the grand jury found enough evidence to say he should stand trial and he should stand trial. and jill, are judges allowed to consider the likelihood that charges will lead to potential impeachment in a case like this? absolutely not. there is a charge of a criminal act in the state of virginia that vi lays federal law. and that s all he should be looking at. it is outrageous he is questioning the motive of prosecutors.
were very similar type of argument. we know that the regulations that we re talking about here all say right at the front these don t give individuals rights. thee are meant to talk about how the department of justice divides up its work. so the worst case no for the government is that prosecutors in the eastern district of virginia bring there case against paul manafort. absolutely. go into that for a minute. jill, there are two different case taz manafort is facing, one in d.c., one the eastern district of virginia. why would there be two different judges looking at there case. there are two different cases because the crimes that he is charged with in the eastern district of virginia are based in virginia. for example, phis his tax returns from his home in virginia. and he didn t report the income he got from his work in the ukraine. so he failed to pay federal taxes on that money. and that is a crime that occurred when he filed in virginia. so that s why that is there. and it c
and when you are dealing with a judge on the bench as long as he has, it s not surprising they re very outspoke everyone had their kind of gut level views about a case. and they as judge ellis did today, will not hesitate to share those views with the government. it doesn t necessarily tell you where he s coming out. okay. judges need to make it look good. they need to show they re fair. when you hear judge ellis say he believes that the special counsel is only interested in manafort to squeeze him for information that would reflect on mr. trump or lead to his imetchment and goes on to say prosecutors wanted mr. manafort to sing but he worried that manafort might also compose that does not as a former prosecutor tell you uh-oh, this guy is going to dismiss this case. if i were the prosecutor i would rather him not have said these things but i wouldn t necessarily jump to that conclusion. he has to base his decision on the law. and we already saw that a judge in the district
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 ameri
imetchment and goes on to say prosecutors wanted mr. manafort to sing but he worried that manafort might also compose that does not as a former prosecutor tell you uh-oh, this guy is going to dismiss this case. if i were the prosecutor i would rather him not have said these things but i wouldn t necessarily jump to that conclusion. he has to base his decision on the law. and we already saw that a judge in the district of columbia expressed concern about there were very similar type of argument. we know that the regulations that we re talking about here all say right at the front these don t give individuals rights. thee are meant to talk about how the department of justice divides up its work. so the worst case no for the government is that prosecutors in the eastern district of virginia bring there case against paul manafort. absolutely. go into that for a minute. jill, there are two different case taz manafort is facing, one in d.c., one the eastern district of virginia. why w