Report: DOJ Authorized Mueller to Probe Manafort for Collusion

The Department of Justice last August authorized special counsel Robert Mueller to investigate Paul Manafort for alleged collusion with the Russian government, CNN is reporting.

Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein said Mueller should investigate Manafort, former campaign chairman for President Donald Trump, for allegedly "colluding with Russian government officials," in a classified memo, CNN reports.

Further, Rosenstein authorized prosecutors to investigate payments made to Manafort from Ukrainian politicians, which has led to the slew of financial crimes he has been charged with, CNN reports.

The Aug. 2 memo surfaced Monday night in a court filing by prosecutors to combat Manafort's legal team's assertion that the case should be thrown out because Mueller overextended his authority, CNN reports.

The memo from Rosenstein shows that prosecutors did not overreach, they assert.

"Under this regime, a runaway Special Counsel is an impossibility," the prosecutors wrote in their brief to the court, CNN reports.

Manafort is scheduled to go to trial in September.

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