Paul Manafort files motion to have one Virginia charge dismissed

Former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort filed a motion late Monday asking a Virginia federal court to dismiss one of the 18 charges against him.

Mr. Manafort is charged with failure to register a foreign bank account from 2011 with the U.S. Department of Treasury. But his attorneys said prosecutors would have had to charge him on that count by June 29, 2017, to fall within the statute of limitations.

Prosecutors with special counsel Robert Mueller’s team indicted Mr. Manafort in February in Virginia. He was also indicted in October on related but separate charges in Washington, D.C.

“The count should be dismissed because the applicable statute of limitations bars prosecution of this offense,” wrote Kevin Downing, an attorney for Mr. Manafort.

Mr. Manafort is charged in Virginia with failure to report taxable income and making false statements related to his lobbying work on behalf of the Ukrainian government. Mr. Mueller is accused of failing to report the income he earned from that work in order to avoid paying taxes.

He also charged with failure to file foreign bank accounts from 2012 through 2014, but has not yet sought to dismiss those charges. Mr. Manafort has pleaded not guilty to all counts against him in Washington and Virginia.

Last week, a federal judge in Washington tossed a civil suit that Mr. Manafort filed against Mr. Mueller. The lawsuit claimed Mr. Mueller overstepped his authority to investigate possible ties between Russia in the Trump campaign in 2016 by charging Mr. Manafort for alleged crimes that occurred before the election.

In dismissing the lawsuit, a federal judge said Mr. Manafort was using a civil lawsuit to undermine his criminal prosecution.