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Mueller to examine Trump’s businesses as part of Russia probe

WASHINGTON — The United States 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 the President’s businesses as well as those of his associates, a person familiar with the probe told Bloomberg. Mr Trump told The New York Times (NYT) on Wednesday that any digging into matters beyond Russia would be out of bounds.

US Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s team has issued subpoenas to banks and filed requests for bank records to foreign lenders under mutual legal assistance treaties, according to two people familiar with the matter. Photo: AP

US Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s team has issued subpoenas to banks and filed requests for bank records to foreign lenders under mutual legal assistance treaties, according to two people familiar with the matter. Photo: AP

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WASHINGTON — The United States 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 the President’s businesses as well as those of his associates, a person familiar with the probe told Bloomberg. Mr Trump told The New York Times (NYT) on Wednesday that any digging into matters beyond Russia would be out of bounds.

His 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.

Federal Bureau of Investigation investigators and others are looking at Russian purchases of apartments in Trump buildings, Mr Trump’s involvement in a controversial SoHo development with Russian associates, the 2013 Miss Universe pageant in Moscow and Mr Trump’s sale of a Florida mansion to a Russian oligarch in 2008, the person said.

Mr John Dowd, one of Mr Trump’s lawyers, said yesterday that 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 examining the efforts of Mr 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 authorised to speak publicly.

The roots of Mr Mueller’s follow-the-money investigation lie in a wide-ranging money-laundering probe launched by then-Manhattan US Attorney Preet Bharara last year, according to the person.

FBI agents had already been gathering information about Mr Trump’s former campaign chairman Paul Manafort, according to two people with knowledge of that probe. Prosecutors had not yet begun presenting evidence to a grand jury. Mr Trump fired Mr Bharara in March.

The Bharara probe was consolidated into Mr 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 Mr 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.

Mr 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 prominent Moscow developer Aras Agalarov paid US$20 million (S$27.3 million) to bring the beauty spectacle there.

About a third of that sum went to Mr Trump in the form of a licensing fee, according to Forbes magazine. At the event, Mr Trump met Mr Herman Gref, chief executive of Russia’s biggest bank, Sberbank PJSC. Mr Agalarov’s son Emin helped broker a meeting last year between Mr Trump’s son and a Russian lawyer who was said to have damaging information about Mrs Hillary Clinton and her campaign.

Another significant financial transaction involved a Palm Beach, Florida estate that Mr Trump purchased in 2004 for US$41 million, after its previous owner lost it in bankruptcy. In March 2008, after the real estate bubble had begun losing air, Russian fertiliser magnate Dmitry Rybolovlev bought the property for US$95 million.

As part of its investigation, Mr Mueller’s team has issued subpoenas to banks and filed requests for bank records to foreign lenders under mutual legal assistance treaties, according to two people familiar with the matter.

Mr Trump had told NYT that Mr Mueller was running an office rife with conflicts of interest and warned that Mr Mueller’s investigation would cross a red line if it expanded to look at his family’s finances beyond any relationship to Russia.

But the president would not say what he would do if the red line is crossed. Mr Trump added that he never would have appointed Attorney-General Jeff Sessions had he known Mr Sessions would recuse himself from overseeing the Russia investigation. Mr Trump called the decision “very unfair to the president”, as it ultimately led to the appointment of a Special Counsel, which should not have happened.

Asked for his response to Mr Trump’s criticism, Mr Sessions said he loves his job and will continue to serve “as long as that is appropriate”.

Asked whether he is considering resigning, he said he and his colleagues intend to continue to do their jobs. “We are serving right now. The work we are doing today is the kind of work that we intend to continue,” he said. AGENCIES

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