It all depends upon which side of the bed Judge Ellis gets up in the morning

Trump's gonna love this. He'll tweet when he sees it on the news.

[Paul Manafort's] trial in the case is set for July 10.

[...]

A federal judge sharply challenged Special Counsel Robert Mueller's prosecution team Friday, questioning how its indictment of former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort on financial charges relates to Mueller's core mandate to investigate alleged 2106 Russian election interference.

U.S. District Court Judge T.S. Ellis said Mueller's team seemed to be pursuing the case — which involves bank and tax fraud — in order to "tighten the screws" on Manafort, in the hope that he will testify against others including President Donald Trump.

"I don't see what relation this indictment has with what the special counsel is authorized to investigate," Ellis said during an hourlong hearing in Alexandria, Virginia. "You don't really care about Mr. Manafort's bank fraud. ... What you really care about is what information Mr. Manafort could give you that would reflect on Mr. Trump or lead to his prosecution or impeachment."

  Politico

Maybe Judge Ellis should look at the order creating the special prosecutor.

You remember Judge Ellis, the Cranky.  He gave the prosecutors hell in an earlier hearing, but he also snapped at the defense.

"This is a massive indictment," the defense attorney said. "We were envisioning a trial in this case in November, following the case in D.C."

"You need to go back to the optometrist," Ellis shot back.

Politico

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

UPDATE:




Perhaps true, but the aggressive way in which he does it?  "You don't really care about Mr. Manafort's bank fraud. ... What you really care about is what information Mr. Manafort could give you that would reflect on Mr. Trump or lead to his prosecution or impeachment."  Should he maybe just ask?

FURTHER UPDATE:





UPDATE:

Attorney Renato Mariotti comments:













Anything other than the judge is an asshole.