Mueller looking at Ivanka Trump’s interaction with Russian lawyer at Trump Tower: report

Special counsel Robert Mueller is reportedly looking into an interaction between a Russian lawyer and Ivanka Trump surrounding a controversial Trump Tower meeting during the campaign.

While the first daughter and now-White House adviser did not take part in the June 2016 meeting, she exchanged greetings with the Russian attorney and a lobbyist who attended the meeting as they stepped off an elevator, a person familiar with the exchange told the Los Angeles Times. 

Mueller’s team is looking into any interactions the attorney, Natalia Veselnitskaya, and lobbyist, Rinat Akhmetshin, had with President Trump’s family members and inner circle, the Times reported.

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The June 2016 meeting — when the president’s eldest son, Donald Trump Jr., met with the attorney, who promised damaging information on Hillary Clinton — has become a flashpoint in the Russia probe.

Trump Jr., the president’s son-in-law and senior adviser Jared Kushner and former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort all attended the meeting with the Russian lawyer and lobbyist.

Trump Jr. has maintained that the meeting was primarily to discuss American adoptions of Russian children. 

In an excerpt from a new book detailing the early months of the Trump presidency, former White House chief strategist Stephen Bannon is quoted as saying that there was “zero” chance that President Trump did not know about the meeting.