Mueller Asking About Trump’s Russia Business Deals and Miss Universe Pageant

Special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigators have been asking witnesses about what Russia could possibly have on President Donald Trump, reports claim.

Two sources familiar with the interviews told CNN late Tuesday that Mueller’s team have been asking questions about why Trump’s efforts to build a Trump Tower in Moscow fell apart and what damaging information Russians could have on him.

Investigators are also asking about the timing of Trump’s decision to run in the 2016 election and how that might have intersected with his business ventures.

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Mueller is investigating the Kremlin’s interference in the 2016 election and on February 16 issued an indictment against 13 Russians for their role in a misinformation campaign against the U.S. The indictment noted the Russian campaign began in 2014.

Several former Trump campaign staff and administration officials have pleaded guilty to charges from the special counsel and are cooperating with the investigation.

On February 17 Trump tweeted the Russian misinformation group was formed “long before my run for President. Maybe they knew I was going to run even though I didn’t know!”

But according to one of the sources, a witness has told Mueller’s investigators they believe Trump became serious about running in 2014.

One of the sources likened the questions to checking a box since “the allegations are out there.”

“You ask everything even if you don't think it's credible,” they said.

Read more: Americans trust Robert Mueller more than Donald Trump on Russia collusion claims: Poll

Trump first began discussing the idea of a Trump Tower Moscow with Russian property magnate Aras Agalarov and his son Emin Agalarov soon after they partnered with him to bring the Miss Universe pageant to Moscow in 2013.

It was through Emin’s music publicist Rob Goldstone that Donald Trump Jr. received emails in June 2016 promising dirt on Hillary Clinton through the Agalarov’s connections to the Russian government.

One of the sources said that Mueller’s team have focussed on what happened during the pageant, such as which government officials and business leaders Trump met with, as well as the logistics around his hotel room.

In early 2017 BuzzFeed News published the Steele dossier, which alleges that Russia could have “kompromat”—compromising material—on Trump in the form of a video of prostitutes hired during the 2013 trip to defile a bed slept in by the Obamas in Trump’s room at the Moscow Ritz-Carlton.

Investigators, the source said, wanted to know who was there, who had access to the room, and who was in charge of security.

Trump has said he is willing to sit down and answer questions from the special counsel in a face-to-face interview. His lawyers are resisting the idea of a wide-ranging interview The Wall Street Journal reported last weekend.

Trump’s lawyers said they will only agree to the interview if the questions are “limited in scope” and don’t test Trump’s “recollections in ways that amount to a potential perjury trap.”