Last year, Donald Trump drew some red lines for freshly appointed Special Counsel Robert Mueller, suggesting that it would be out of bounds for Trump to look into the finances of the Trump Organization. It was a boundary that Mueller began to test immediately.
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.
GOP Representatives have proposed several pieces of legislation that would limit the range of Mueller’s investigation. In particular, they’ve seemed eager to limit the ability of the special counsel to look back beyond Trump’s official entry into the race. Which would seem to call for a quick timeline:
- 2011—Donald Trump talks about running for president … again.
- 2012—Trump copyrights “Make America Great Again.”
- 2013—Trump spends his infamous “golden” weekend in Moscow
- 2014—Russia launches its efforts to distort the 2016 election.
- 2015—Trump announces his official candidacy.
- 2016—Hijinks
That timeline leaves out Trump’s lucky sale of a tear-down property for more than twice its market value, or his dealings with Bayrock to build Trump SoHo, or the Russian money laundering ring that was working from inside Trump Tower, or the desperate collapse of his casino business in Atlantic City. But all of that, particularly the massive failure and bankruptcy, was kind of a big deal.
Ever since a series of bankruptcies left banks unwilling to lend to him, Donald Trump has been on the lookout for partners willing to fund the buildings that bear his name.
And he found them.
Where did Trump find partners willing to pay him, not to build new buildings, but just to step aside and let them handle things while he acted as cover?
The money to build these projects flowed almost entirely from Russian sources. In other words, after his business crashed, Trump was floated and made to appear to operate a successful business enterprise through the infusion of hundreds in millions of cash from dark Russian sources.
He was their man.
And now, Muller seems to be looking into just how much “their man Trump” was willing to do for Mother Russia.
Several lines of questioning to witnesses have centered on the 2013 Miss Universe pageant, which was held in Moscow, and unsuccessful discussions to brand a Trump Tower Moscow, two sources said. …
But the plans fell through. Rob Goldstone, a publicist for pop star Emin Agalarov, told Yahoo News last year that the Trump Tower deal was scrapped because "the economy tanked in Russia" from harsh sanctions imposed by Western countries.
If only both Trump and the Russians could find a way to do something about those sanctions. Now Mueller’s team is asking some questions that have never been answered before—who paid for Trump’s Moscow pageant? How much did they give Trump? And … what happened that weekend?
Along these lines, the source said, investigators were interested in logistics surrounding Trump's hotel room in Moscow: Who was there? Who would have access to it? Who was in charge of security? Who was moving around with him during the trip?
And critically, who changed the sheets?
There seems little doubt that Mueller is walking over Trump’s red lines without a lot of concern. Which likely has a lot to do with Trump’s fearful, fretful and frequent complaints about a “witch hunt.”
But there is at least one person who thinks that Mueller is going too far.
"I think it's beyond his mandate. The mandate is what happened during the 2016 election in terms of collusion. That's the key idea," Starr, who led the 1990s investigation into President Bill Clinton that led to his impeachment, told CNN's "New Day."
It’s always good to have an expert opinion.