Special counsel Robert Mueller is now investigating President Donald Trump’s pre-2016 business and financial ties to Russia — and is looking specifically at the time leading up to when he decided to run for president.
Two sources told CNN that Mueller is asking questions that “included the timing of Trump’s decision to seek the presidency, potentially compromising information the Russians may have had about him, and why efforts to brand a Trump Tower in Moscow fell through.â€
The president has said previously that Mueller probing his finances would be a bridge too far.
Mueller and his team, according to one source, are interested in learning when specifically Trump decided to run for president “and how that coincided with his business venture.†The source explained that they told Mueller they believed Trump may have been mulling the run over as early as 2014, though the president denied as much on Twitter earlier in February.
Two sources that spoke to CNN also relayed that Mueller and his team are probing the 2013 Miss Universe pageant held in Moscow as well.
Watch CNN break the story exclusively below:
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