(CNN) Paul Manafort, the former Trump campaign chairman indicted on money laundering and other charges, filed a lawsuit challenging the broad authority of special counsel Robert Mueller and alleging the Justice Department violated the law in appointing Mueller. 
 
 The suit brought Wednesday in US District Court in Washington, where Manafort and another former Trump campaign aide are charged, challenges Mueller's decision to charge Manafort with alleged crimes that they say have nothing to do with the 2016 campaign, but rather relate to lucrative lobbying work Manafort and his deputy did for a former Russia-friendly government in Ukraine. That work ended in 2014, the suit says. Manafort and his deputy Rick Gates deny the allegations in the charges. 
 
 The legal action represents a new tack in a broader effort by supporters of the President to push back on the special counsel. Some Republicans have begun publicly calling for Mueller's probe to be shut down. Manafort's attorneys have echoed the President's criticism that Mueller's investigation into Russian meddling in the 2016 election is pursuing crimes that never happened. 
 
 The Manafort lawsuit alleges Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein and Mueller have unlawfully exceeded the authorities allowed under the law governing special counsel appointments. The lawsuit contends that the order Rosenstein signed to appoint Mueller "exceeds the scope of Mr. Rosenstein's authority to appoint special counsel as well as specific restrictions on the scope of such appointments." 
 
 A DOJ spokesperson responded with a statement, saying: "The lawsuit is frivolous but the defendant is entitled to file whatever he wants." 
 
 Read More ||||| President Donald Trump's former campaign manager, Paul J. Manafort, asked a federal court Wednesday to void the Justice Department's appointment of special counsel Robert S. Mueller III and charges Mueller's office filed against him, elevating Trump supporters' attempts to discredit the probe into Russian interference in last year's election. 
 
 Manafort's attorneys argued in a 17-page lawsuit in federal court in Washington that the department exceeded its legal authority when, in May, acting attorney general Rod J. Rosenstein ordered Mueller to investigate "links and/or coordination" between the Russian government and Trump campaign, as well as "any matters that arose or may arise directly from" that investigation. 
 
 The order "purports to grant Mr. Mueller carte blanche to investigate and pursue criminal charges in connection with anything he stumbles across while investigating," no matter how remote from his original charge, Manafort attorneys Kevin M. Downing and Thomas E. Zehnle wrote. 
 
 [Read Manafort’s lawsuit against DOJ, Mueller and Rosenstein] 
 
 They said the special counsel office's indictment of Manafort alleging he committed fraud, conspiracy and money laundering in secretly lobbying for a Russian-friendly political party in Ukraine focuses not on actions with the Trump campaign in 2016 but private business dealings that began much earlier, adding that he was interviewed by the Justice Department in 2014. 
 
 "The actions of DOJ and Mr. Rosenstein in issuing the Appointment Order, and Mr. Mueller's actions pursuant to the authority the Order granted him, were arbitrary, capricious, and not in accordance with the law," they alleged. 
 
 [Inside Trump’s legal team: Trying to protect the president from Mueller’s ‘killers’] 
 
 A spokesman for the special counsel's office declined to comment. 
 
 
 
 "The lawsuit is frivolous but the defendant is entitled to file whatever he wants," a Justice Department spokeswoman said. 
 
 The lawsuit, assigned to U.S. District Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson, a 2013 Obama appointee, escalates attacks by current and former Trump officials on the legitimacy of the government's investigation into campaign activities. 
 
 Manafort, 68, and his longtime deputy, Rick Gates, 45, have pleaded not guilty and remain under home detention awaiting trial on charges including money laundering and fraud. 
 
 [Special counsel: Manafort’s stated wealth fluctuated wildly; he keeps three passports] 
 
 Their indictment, announced Oct. 30, marked the first criminal charges disclosed in probes into possible Russian influence in U.S. political affairs, which have also swept up former Trump national security adviser Michael Flynn and Trump campaign foreign policy aide George Papadopoulos. Both pleaded guilty to lying to investigators — Flynn about contacts with Russia's ambassador and Papadopoulos about contacts with foreigners claiming high-level connections to them — and are cooperating with investigators. 
 
 [Trump slams FBI, Obamacare in post-Christmas tweets] 
 
 White-collar criminal defense attorney Jeffrey Jacobovitz said it is not unusual for a defendant to try to question the bounds of a special counsel. But he couldn't recall a single time that approach succeeded in tossing a charge. 
 
 Trump, in social media postings after Christmas and New Year's Day, has attacked the special counsel investigation, the Justice Department and the FBI, including the FBI's former director, James B. Comey; former general counsel James Baker; and Deputy Director Andrew McCabe. 
 
 Trump, his spokeswoman and his attorney have cast the charges as having nothing to do with the president, who has called the probe a "witch hunt." 
 
 [Trump urges Justice Department to ‘act’ on Comey, suggests Huma Abedin should face jail time] 
 
 Democrats and some Republicans have condemned the strategy of attempting to delegitimize law enforcement, warning that it will only feed the politicization and weakening of key institutions upholding law and order, outcomes Trump supporters say they oppose. 
 
 Independent investigations set up by the Justice Department tend to have fairly wide jurisdiction, Jacobovitz said. He noted the charge that led to president Bill Clinton's Senate impeachment trial in 1998 was lying under oath about sexual liaisons with intern Monica S. Lewinsky, in a probe that began over his pre-presidency land deals. 
 
 "Look at what Ken Starr was looking at with respect to Bill Clinton and his dealings with Monica Lewinsky, and yet that was not shot down by any courts," Jacobovitz pointed out. "Ken Starr started looking at Whitewater and ended up looking at actions related to Monica Lewinsky." 
 
 Devlin Barrett and Amber Phillips contributed to this report. ||||| Paul Manafort, former Trump campaign chairman, leaves the federal courthouse in Washington in November. (Jacquelyn Martin/AP) 
 
 A federal judge in Virginia on Friday sharply questioned the motivations of special counsel Robert S. Mueller III’s fraud prosecution of President Trump’s former campaign manager, saying it was aimed at getting him to provide evidence against the president. 
 
 Judge T.S. Ellis III’s comments came during a hearing in Alexandria federal court, where attorneys for Paul Manafort argued that bank- and tax-fraud charges against him are outside the scope of the special counsel’s authority. While the judge has yet to rule and indicated that he may well decide in favor of prosecutors, his scrutiny of their approach quickly became a rallying cry for supporters of the president. 
 
 “You don’t really care about Mr. Manafort’s bank fraud,” said Ellis, who is known for being combative with attorneys in his courtroom. “You really care about getting information Mr. Manafort can give you that would reflect on Mr. Trump and lead to his prosecution or impeachment.” 
 
 Ellis said the special counsel, which is investigating Russian interference in the 2016 election, wanted Manafort, “the vernacular is, to sing.” The judge also put it another way, saying the office set out to “turn the screws and get the information you really want.” 
 
 The comments earned quick praise from Trump, who said from the stage at a National Rifle Association event in Dallas, “I’ve been saying that for a long time — it’s a witch hunt.” 
 
 Trump called Manafort a “very nice guy” and said that “all we hear about is this phony Russia witch hunt.” 
 
 Manafort, 69, is accused in federal court in both Alexandria and the District of Columbia of crimes related to his work for a pro-Russian political party in Ukraine. 
 
 Manafort served as Trump’s campaign chief for five months before resigning amid news reports that he had received secret cash payments for his Ukraine consulting. 
 
 Deputy Solicitor General Michael Dreeben did not respond specifically to the judge’s assertions in court. But he said the investigation fit naturally into a probe of Trump campaign ties to Russia: “In trying to understand the actions of Mr. Manafort in Ukraine and the association he had with Russian individuals and the depths of those financial relationships, we had to follow the money where it led.” 
 
 Manafort’s attorneys contend that their client’s alleged crimes in Virginia have nothing to do with the election or with Trump. 
 
 Ellis agreed, emphasizing that some of the charges involve purported conduct that occurred over a decade ago. But he made no immediate decision on the defense motion to dismiss the case. The judge said that even without such a connection, the special counsel may well still have the authority to bring the charges. 
 
 “I’m not saying it’s illegitimate,” Ellis said. 
 
 But the judge did question why an investigation into Trump attorney Michael Cohen was handed over to federal prosecutors in New York while the Manafort case was kept with the special counsel. 
 
 Ellis suggested that if he ruled in Manafort’s favor, the case could simply be returned to the U.S. attorney’s office for the Eastern District of Virginia. 
 
 It is precisely because the probe into Manafort’s financial dealings began years ago with federal prosecutors in that office, Manafort’s defense attorneys argued, that the special counsel should not be involved. 
 
 “This doesn’t make any sense,” defense attorney Kevin Downing said in court. “It’s so unrelated,” he said, “as to be in violation” of the special counsel’s mandate. 
 
 Dreeben responded in court that the Manafort investigation has expanded significantly since it was taken over by Mueller. “Our investigation has considerably advanced and deepened our understanding” of Manafort’s actions, he said. 
 
 The specific parameters of the special counsel’s investigation have not been publicly revealed, Dreeben said, because to do so would jeopardize ongoing probes and sensitive national security information. 
 
 Instead, he said, the scope has been defined in “ongoing discussions” with Deputy Attorney General Rod J. Rosenstein, who oversees the investigation. 
 
 Dreeben also referred to an August memorandum from Rosenstein authorizing Mueller to investigate whether Manafort illegally coordinated with Russia in 2016. 
 
 Ellis asked for an unredacted version of that memo. Dreeben told the judge that all sections of the memo related to Manafort have been publicly revealed. Significant sections remain classified. 
 
 Manafort has argued that Rosenstein improperly gave Mueller a “blank check” to investigate the Trump campaign. 
 
 Ellis appeared somewhat sympathetic to that argument as well, comparing Mueller to independent counsels criticized in the past for overreach. 
 
 “The American people feel pretty strongly about no one having unfettered power,” he said. 
 
 Dreeben countered that the special counsel is part of the Justice Department and thus subject to oversight that addresses such concerns. The tax division and national security division signed off on the Manafort indictment, he said. 
 
 “We are not operating with unfettered power,” he said. “We are not separate from the Justice Department.” 
 
 In Dallas on Friday, the NRA crowd roared as Trump read aloud from news reports of the morning hearing. 
 
 The judge, Trump said, “is really something very special, I hear, from many standpoints. He’s a respected person.” 
 
 Ellis was appointed by President Ronald Reagan and took the bench in 1987. He presided over the plea and sentencing of American Taliban supporter John Walker Lindh as well as a case involving government secrets leaked to a pro-Israel lobbying group and Israeli official. Born in Bogota, Colombia, he served as an aviator in the U.S. Navy and has an undergraduate degree from Princeton and law degrees from Harvard and Oxford. 
 
 He is known for his sense of humor, his long digressions and his demanding and somewhat confrontational attitude toward the lawyers who appear before him. 
 
 “Judge Ellis has high expectations from counsel on both sides of any issue,” said Timothy Belevetz, a former prosecutor in the Eastern District now with the firm Holland & Knight. “His interactions with counsel in the courtroom do not necessarily reflect where he’ll end up coming out, because he’s a thoughtful judge who takes into account and carefully analyzes what’s presented to him. But in the meantime, he probes counsel and does so thoroughly.” 
 
 Rick Gates, a former Trump campaign aide who worked with Manafort, has pleaded guilty and agreed to cooperate with the special counsel. 
 
 Mueller also has added Uzo Asonye, an attorney from the office of the U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia, to his legal team. 
 
 Ellis noted with pleasure that the fraud prosecutor has appeared before him several times. 
 
 “He may tell you some interesting things,” Ellis said. 
 
 An earlier version of this story incorrectly said the NRA event was Thursday.
– In a lawsuit filed Wednesday, former Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort is challenging special counsel Robert Mueller's authority to investigate crimes and seeking to have the indictment against himself thrown out, the Wall Street Journal reports. According to the Washington Post, the lawsuit calls the actions of Mueller, Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, and the Department of Justice "arbitrary, capricious, and not in accordance with the law." At issue is what the lawsuit claims was overly broad authority granted to Mueller by Rosenstein, CNN reports. Mueller was given orders to investigate possible collusion between the Trump campaign and Russian government, as well as "any matters that arose or may arise directly from that." Manafort has been charged with money laundering, fraud, and more as part of Mueller's investigation. But the lawsuit claims those charges have nothing to do with the Trump campaign, instead arising from lobbying work Manafort did on behalf of Ukrainian groups. The lawsuit states that work ended in 2014. The lawsuit—which seeks to have Mueller removed as special counsel and prohibited from similar investigations against Manafort—states the indictment against Manafort "is completely unmoored from the special counsel's original jurisdiction." A spokesperson for the Department of Justice says Manafort's lawsuit "is frivolous, but the defendant is entitled to file whatever he wants."