Speaker 1: Now let's get more details on this Bloomberg exclusive. It's
Speaker 1: the focus of today's Bloomberg lobraref exploring legal issues in
Speaker 1: the news and Bloomberg Lajos Greg's store and June Grasso
Speaker 1: speak with the Bloomberg News reporter Christian Berthelson, who broke
Speaker 1: the story. Give us a sense of just how broad
Speaker 1: this investigation into Donald Trump's business dealings seems to be.
Speaker 1: Based on your reporting. Robert Mueller was just appointed a
Speaker 1: little about two months ago to take over the US
Speaker 1: inquiry into whether Russia meddled in the presidential election, and
Speaker 1: they're still gathering a lot of various sort of strains
Speaker 1: of inquiry into the president's relationship with Russia and Eastern
Speaker 1: European businesses in general. UM. As part of that, what
Speaker 1: they're looking at are sort of the origins of Trump's
Speaker 1: relationship with Russia and other countries in Eastern Europe. Uh,
Speaker 1: probably to sort of give them a a base from
Speaker 1: which to go forward in understanding uh, the other more
Speaker 1: reinteractions and whether any of them wood to law. Christian,
Speaker 1: in your story, according to someone familiar with the developing
Speaker 1: inquiry but not authorized to speak publicly, you say the
Speaker 1: roots of Muller's investigation lie in a wide ranging money
Speaker 1: laundering probe launched by former Manhattan US Attorney pre Berrara
Speaker 1: last year. Tell us about that part of it. The
Speaker 1: US Turns Office in New York, under Mr Barrara, initiated
Speaker 1: an investigation into Trump's campaign chairman Paul Manafort, looking at
Speaker 1: money laundering issues in several different transactions. You know. Mr
Speaker 1: Barra was fired in March, along with forty five other
Speaker 1: U S attorneys around the country who were Obama administration
Speaker 1: and pointees, and that inquiry was then sort of absorbed
Speaker 1: into Mr Mueller's Russia investigation. He was appointed Christian. In
Speaker 1: the interview with The New York Times, the President said
Speaker 1: that if Mueller starts looking into business dealings that are
Speaker 1: not connected to Russia, that would be a red line
Speaker 1: for him. Is everything that you've learned about this investigation
Speaker 1: connected to Russia in one we or another. Yeah, definitely.
Speaker 1: That seems to be, uh, the sort of unifying link
Speaker 1: between all of it. If you look at the letter
Speaker 1: that Rod Rosenstein wrote to a point Mr Mueller, it's
Speaker 1: a fairly broad mandate in there. I mean, you know,
Speaker 1: obviously it talks about investigating Russian manipulation of the US
Speaker 1: election last year. But there's also sort of catch all
Speaker 1: language that basically allows the investigation to go wherever it
Speaker 1: logically should. But you're right, I mean, Trump's comments to
Speaker 1: The New York Times appeared throw down this gauntlet where
Speaker 1: he's saying, a certain level of Russia inquiry is fine,
Speaker 1: but if you start going into my business dealing sets
Speaker 1: off limits, which sort of raises a question of whether
Speaker 1: where this is ultimately going to end in some kind
Speaker 1: of standoff something between them and Christian As far as
Speaker 1: Jared Kushner, where does the investigation there go, because there
Speaker 1: was also some questions about the twenty billion dollar investment
Speaker 1: in the black Stone Group, which has ties the Christian
Speaker 1: family has tied to, shortly after he negotiated the arm
Speaker 1: sale to Saudi Arabia. So is it going that far?
Speaker 1: We don't know. We we have not heard from our
Speaker 1: sources if that is a part of it. But you know,
Speaker 1: definitely financing of Kushner developments is part of the inquiry
Speaker 1: as well as sort of more back in the main
Speaker 1: about you know, Kushner's contacts with Russians that he first
Speaker 1: did not disclose. Uh, in uh in all of his
Speaker 1: ethics forms and such. This is just one avenue that
Speaker 1: Robert muller is is pursuing, right, What else is he
Speaker 1: looking at? More broadly, all the sort of financial transactions
Speaker 1: and business dealings are only one part of of what
Speaker 1: sounds like a very sort of wide ranging and possibly
Speaker 1: definitive examination of all things related to Russia and the
Speaker 1: election last year. As Bloomberg News reporter Christian Berthelsen speaking
Speaker 1: with the Bloomberg La host Gregg Store and Jim Grasso,
Speaker 1: you can listen to Bloomberg Law week days at one
Speaker 1: pm Wall Street Time here on Bloomberg Radio Now. Among
Speaker 1: the top legal stories from Bloomberg Law, it's a battle
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Speaker 1: that's this morning's Bloomberg Labbrary. If you can find more
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