“Since July 2017, we have advised the public that the Trump Organization is fully cooperative with all investigations, including the special counsel, and is responding to their requests,” said Alan S. Futerfas, a lawyer representing the Trump Organization. “This is old news and our assistance and cooperation with the various investigations remains the same today.”
The White House press secretary, Sarah Huckabee Sanders, reiterated during her daily briefing that the president was cooperating with the special counsel inquiry and referred further questions to the Trump Organization.
There are few other publicly known examples of Mr. Mueller using subpoenas. In January, he ordered the president’s former chief strategist, Stephen K. Bannon, to appear before a grand jury. Mr. Mueller dropped the subpoena after Mr. Bannon agreed to be interviewed by investigators.
Mr. Mueller could run afoul of a line the president has warned him not to cross. Though it is not clear how much of the subpoena is related to Mr. Trump’s business outside ties to Russia, Mr. Trump said in an interview with The New York Times in July that the special counsel would be crossing a red line if he looked into his family’s finances beyond any relationship with Russia. The president declined to say how he would respond if he concluded that the special counsel had crossed that line.
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Mr. Trump campaigned as a businessman whose deal-making prowess would translate directly into reforming Washington. The argument helped propel him to the White House, but the Trump Organization has been a magnet for criticism from Democrats, ethics watchdogs and some Republicans, who expressed concern that he remained vulnerable to conflicts of interest because he did not separate from the company.
Before Mr. Trump was sworn in, he pledged that he would stay uninvolved in his businesses while in office but insisted it would be too punitive for his business partners for him to divest from the company altogether.
Among the Trump Organization’s holdings are golf clubs, hotels and licensing agreements for the use of the Trump name on properties and other products. While its holdings are complex, the company has always been run like a small, family-owned business; Mr. Trump brought in his three eldest children to help run the enterprise.
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The Trump Organization is not publicly held, making it difficult to determine where it receives its money and invests it. The company has said that it never had real estate holdings in Russia, but witnesses recently interviewed by Mr. Mueller have been asked about a possible real estate deal in Moscow.
In 2015, a longtime business associate of Mr. Trump’s, Felix Sater, emailed Mr. Trump’s lawyer, Michael Cohen, at his Trump Organization account claiming he had ties to President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia and that building a Trump Tower in Moscow would help Mr. Trump’s presidential campaign. Mr. Trump signed a nonbinding letter of intent for the project in 2015 and discussed it at least three times with Mr. Cohen.
A revealing comment about Russia by Eric Trump, the president’s middle son, also drew scrutiny when it emerged last year. James Dodson, a longtime golf writer from North Carolina, said offhand in a radio interview that Eric Trump, who oversees the golf courses for the Trump Organization, told him in 2013 that the Trumps relied on Russian investors to back their golf clubs. Eric Trump has denied those remarks.
Mr. Mueller was appointed in May to investigate whether Mr. Trump’s campaign colluded with the Russians to influence the 2016 election and any other matters that may arise from the inquiry.
A month later, the White House counsel, Donald F. McGahn II, threatened to quit after Mr. Trump asked him to have Mr. Mueller fired because the president believed he had conflict-of-interest issues that precluded him from running the special counsel investigation.
Mr. Mueller is also examining whether the president has tried to obstruct the investigation.
Mr. Trump’s lawyers are in negotiations with Mr. Mueller’s office about whether and how to allow his investigators to interview the president. Mr. Mueller’s office has shared topics it wants to discuss with the president, according to two people familiar with the talks. The lawyers have advised Mr. Trump to refuse an interview, but the president has said he wants to do it, as he believes he has done nothing wrong and can easily answer investigators’ questions.
At the same time, Mr. Trump is considering whether to bring on a new lawyer to help represent him in the special counsel’s investigation. Last week, Mr. Trump spoke with Emmet T. Flood, a longtime Washington lawyer who represented former President Bill Clinton during the impeachment process, about coming into the White House to deal with the inquiry.
donfelicedon2 on March 15th, 2018 at 18:35 UTC »
If someone tells you not to look for evidence somewhere, that's probably where you should look
fritzianbale on March 15th, 2018 at 18:15 UTC »
I don't know if anyone else remembers when Donald said he would fire Mueller if he looked into his businesses and finances. This is a very serious crossroads in this investigation.
2totwo on March 15th, 2018 at 18:04 UTC »
Simple. Because they would/will hide things. So make it illegal when things you already have and know exist don't show up in what they give you.