Administration

Mueller to examine Trump business as part of Russia probe: report

Special counsel Robert Mueller is looking into President Trump’s business transactions as part of the ongoing probe into alleged ties between the Trump campaign and Russians who sought to influence the 2016 election, according to a Thursday report in Bloomberg.
  
The news comes a day after Trump told The New York Times that Mueller would cross a line if he expanded the probe to his business ties. 
 
Mueller is the special counsel appointed by the Justice Department to investigate Russian election meddling and alleged collusion by members of the Trump campaign.
 
{mosads}Bloomberg reports the counsel is probing purchases from Russian buyers at Trump properties, the 2013 Miss Universe pageant in Moscow, a SoHo development involving Russian associates and Trump’s 2008 sale of a Florida mansion to a Russian oligarch. 

“Those transactions are in my view well beyond the mandate of the special counsel,” Trump’s lawyer John Dowd said in a statement to Bloomberg.

 
Dowd called the investigation into Trump’s finances “unrelated to the election of 2016 or any alleged collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia and most importantly … well beyond any Statute of Limitation imposed by the United States Code.”

The Times separately reported on Wednesday the president’s ties to Deutsche Bank were also facing scrutiny.

Trump has a long history with the German bank, which has loaned him money in the past.

Federal investigators have reportedly been in touch with the bank regarding Trump’s accounts. Congress also requested oversight into Trump transactions with the bank, but the bank has so far refused to provide information.

Deutsche Bank will most likely have to give information about the president’s accounts to Mueller, according to Bloomberg.

Business regulators are also going through the loans from Deutsche Bank to Trump’s businesses. 

The news follows a slew of revelations related to the ongoing federal probe about private meetings between individuals with connections to Russia and members of Trump’s campaign.

In the most explosive reveal, it came to light that the president’s son Donald Trump Jr., his former campaign chairman Paul Manafort and his son-in-law Jared Kushner took part in a Trump Tower meeting during the summer of 2016 that was pitched to the younger Trump as a meeting with Russians who held negative information on Hillary Clinton. The meeting was only recently disclosed.

Trump Jr. and Manafort are set to testify before the Senate Judiciary Committee in a public hearing on Wednesday. Kushner will also testify behind closed doors before the same committee next week.

 
– This report was updated at 11:30 a.m.