Mueller Expands Probe
to Trump Business
Transactions
By and- Special counsel examines dealings of Kushner, Manafort, Trump
- Trump has warned Mueller against going beyond Russia in probe
Mueller Said to Probe Trump's Business Transactions
The U.S. special counsel investigating possible ties between the Donald
Trump campaign and Russia in last year’s election is examining a broad
range of transactions involving Trump’s businesses as well as those of his
associates, according to a person familiar with the probe.
The president told the New York Times on Wednesday that any digging into
matters beyond Russia would be out of bounds. Trump’s businesses have
involved Russians for years, making the boundaries fuzzy so Special Counsel
Robert Mueller appears to be taking a wide-angle approach to his two-
month-old probe.
FBI investigators and others are looking at Russian purchases of apartments
in Trump buildings, Trump’s involvement in a controversial SoHo
development with Russian associates, the 2013 Miss Universe pageant
in Moscow and Trump’s sale of a Florida mansion to a Russian oligarch
in 2008, the person said.
Trump, Ross and Kushner attend a meeting at the White House on Feb. 2, 2017.
Photographer: Drew Angerer/Getty Images
John Dowd, one of Trump’s lawyers,
said on Thursday he was unaware of
this element of the investigation. "Those transactions are in my view well
beyond the mandate of the Special counsel; are unrelated to the election
of 2016 or any alleged collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia
and most importantly, are well beyond any Statute of Limitation imposed
by the United States Code," he wrote in an email.
Agents are also interested in dealings with the Bank of Cyprus, where
Wilbur Ross served as vice chairman before he became commerce secretary.
They are also examining the efforts of Jared Kushner, the President’s
son-in-law and White House aide, to secure financing for some of his
family’s real estate properties. The information was provided by someone
familiar with the developing inquiry but not authorized to speak publicly.
The roots of Mueller’s follow-the-money investigation lie in a wide-ranging
money laundering probe launched by then-Manhattan U.S. Attorney
Preet Bharara last year, according to the person.
FBI agents had already been gathering information about Trump’s former
campaign chairman, Paul Manafort, according to two people with
knowledge of that probe. Prosecutors hadn’t yet begun presenting
evidence to a grand jury. Trump fired Bharara in March.
The Bharara probe was consolidated into Mueller’s inquiry, showing
that the special counsel is taking an overarching approach to his
mandated investigation of Russian interference in the 2016 presidential
election. Altogether, the various financial examinations constitute one
thread of Mueller’s inquiry, which encompasses computer hacking and
the dissemination of stolen campaign and voter information as well as
the actions of former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn.
Joshua Stueve, Mueller’s spokesman, declined to comment, as did
Abbe Lowell, a lawyer for Kushner and a Manafort spokesman.
Spokesmen for the White House,
Trump Organization and Ross didn’t immediately respond to requests
for comment.
Mueller’s team is looking at the Trump SoHo hotel condominium
development, which was a licensing deal with Bayrock Capital LLC. In
2010, the former finance director of Bayrock filed a lawsuit claiming
the firm structured transactions in fraudulent ways to evade taxes.
Bayrock was a key source of capital for Trump development projects,
including Trump SoHo.
The 2013 Miss Universe pageant is of interest
because a prominent Moscow developer,
Aras Agalarov, paid $20 million to bring the
beauty spectacle there. About a third of that
sum went to Trump in the form of a licensing
fee, according to Forbes magazine. At the event, Trump met Herman Gref,
chief executive of Russia’s biggest bank, Sberbank PJSC. Agalarov’s son
Emin helped broker a meeting last year between Trump’s son and a
Russian lawyer who was said to have damaging information about
Hillary Clinton and her campaign.
Another significant financial transaction involved a Palm Beach,
Florida estate that Trump purchased in 2004 for $41 million, after its
previous owner lost it in bankruptcy. In March of 2008, after the real
estate bubble had begun losing air, Russian fertilizer magnate Dmitry
Rybolovlev bought the property for $95 million.
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