RUSSIAN MONEY

Report: Mueller Questions Russian Oligarchs About Possible Trump Campaign Donations

Probing whether Kremlin insiders illegally funneled money into Trump campaign.

Special counsel Robert Mueller’s team has questioned Russian oligarchs about whether they “illegally funneled cash donations directly or indirectly into Donald Trump’s presidential campaign and inauguration,” multiple sources told CNN. Two oligarchs were stopped and questioned while traveling in the U.S. One of them had his electronic devices searched “when his private jet landed at a New York area airport,” according to the report. Mueller and his team also made an “informal voluntary document and interview request” to a third oligarch who did not travel to America. According to CNN, campaign-finance laws prohibit foreign nationals from donating to U.S. campaigns. Mueller is also reportedly interested in “investments Russians made in companies or think tanks that have political action committees that donated to the campaign” and the use of “straw donors—Americans with citizenship—as a vessel through which they could pump money into the campaign and inauguration fund.”