Yesterday Trump told the NY Times that it would be inappropriate for Mueller to look into his family’s finances that have nothing to do with Russia:
Mr. Trump said Mr. Mueller was running an office rife with conflicts of interest and warned investigators against delving into matters too far afield from Russia. Mr. Trump never said he would order the Justice Department to fire Mr. Mueller, nor would he outline circumstances under which he might do so. But he left open the possibility as he expressed deep grievance over an investigation that has taken a political toll in the six months since he took office.
Asked if Mr. Mueller’s investigation would cross a red line if it expanded to look at his family’s finances beyond any relationship to Russia, Mr. Trump said, “I would say yes.” He would not say what he would do about it. “I think that’s a violation. Look, this is about Russia.”
Now Bloomberg is reporting that Mueller has expanded his investigation to look Trump’s private business transactions:
BLOOMBERG – The U.S. special counsel investigating possible ties between the Donald Trump campaign and Russia in last year’s election is examining a broad range of transactions involving Trump’s businesses as well as those of his associates, according to a person familiar with the probe.
The president told the New York Times on Wednesday that any digging into matters beyond Russia would be out of bounds. Trump’s businesses have involved Russians for years, making the boundaries fuzzy so Special Counsel Robert Mueller appears to be taking a wide-angle approach to his two-month-old probe.
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.
It sounds like what Mueller is looking into is related to Russia, just perhaps not related to the election.
There are two ways to look at this. One might say that Mueller is digging for dirt on Trump by expanding his investigation to transactions that date into the past decade. Another might say that if Trump has nothing to hide, then a thorough investigation is best so that it completely clears Trump’s name and that he can fully move on when the investigation is over.
It does seem that there are political conflicts of interest with some of Mueller’s hirings for this investigation. However if he really has the reputation that everyone suggested he had earlier this year, then there should be nothing to worry about.