CNN’s Toobin on Judge Criticizing Special Counsel: ’Not a Good Day for the Mueller Office’

CNN’s Jeffrey Toobin acknowledged Friday that it was “not a good day” for the Special Counsel Robert Mueller‘s office after a federal judge dressed down federal prosecutors over charges against former Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort in a surprising courtroom drama.

In what was supposed to be a routine legal procedure in the Manafort case in Virginia, Ronald Reagan-appointed Judge T.S. Ellis told prosecutors “its unlikely you’re going to persuade me the special counsel has unfettered power to do whatever he wants,” referencing the Mueller’s team bringing money-related charges against Manafort as a result of its probe into possible Russia collusion during the 2016 presidential election.

While President Donald Trump praised the judge’s comments Friday, Toobin took to the CNN airwaves, calling the remarks “unusually harsh” for a federal judge.

“It was unusually harsh and it was certainly a bad day for the Mueller team, which has not had many bad days in court,” Toobin said on CNN’s The Situation Room.

However, Toobin added, “it’s not really the bad day the way you might think about it.”

“The odds that Judge Ellis is actually going to dismiss the case are remote. If you look at the law it just doesn’t seem like the judge has any basis on which to dismiss the complaint. However, good days like this make Manafort less likely to plead guilty and cooperate, and that is a problem for the Mueller office because clearly that is something that they want,” Toobin said.

The CNN legal analyst added that the other reason Friday was not a good day for the Mueller team “is that it contributes to the politicization of the office, like it or not, that it creates the impression they are out to get Trump, they are out to get Republicans, and that is not a healthy thing for this office, fair or not.”

“So I don’t think there’s any kind of fatal damage in the works here, but this is certainly not a good day for the Mueller office,” Toobin said.

Watch above, via CNN.

[image via screengrab]

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