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, a former chairman of the Trump presidential campaign, filed a lawsuit Wednesday alleging that special counsel Robert Mueller had exceeded his authority in indicting Mr. Manafort on money laundering and tax-related charges. 
 
 The lawsuit asks a federal judge in Washington to throw out the order issued by Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein in May that appointed Mr. Mueller to investigate any links between the Russian government and the Trump campaign, as well as any issues arising from that inquiry. 
 
 ... ||||| (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." 
 
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– 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."