Report: Trump’s firm subpoenaed

WASHINGTON — Special counsel Robert Mueller has subpoenaed the Trump Organization to turn over documents, including some related to Russia, according to two people briefed on the matter.

The order is the first known instance of the special counsel demanding records directly related to President Donald Trump’s businesses, bringing the investigation closer to the president. The company, meanwhile, said it has been turning over documents for months in response to requests from the special counsel.

An attorney for the Trump Organization said in a statement to The Associated Press that the company has been “fully cooperative” with Mueller’s investigation since July. The company has been in routine contact with the prosecutors, turning over documents and regularly discussing the scope of requests.

“This is old news and our assistance and cooperation with the various investigations remains the same today,” said Alan Futerfas, who represents the company.

The breadth of the subpoena that came to light Thursday was not clear, nor was it clear why Mueller issued it instead of simply asking for the documents from the company, an umbrella organization that oversees Trump’s business ventures. In the subpoena, delivered in recent weeks, Mueller ordered the Trump Organization to hand over all records related to Russia and other topics he is investigating, the people said.

The subpoena is the latest indication that the investigation, which Trump’s lawyers once regularly assured him would be completed by now, will drag on for at least several more months.

Word of the subpoena also comes as Mueller appears to be broadening his investigation to examine the role foreign money may have played in funding Trump’s political activities. In recent weeks, Mueller’s investigators have questioned witnesses, including an adviser to the United Arab Emirates, about the flow of Emirati money into the United States.

Mueller’s interest in extracting information from Trump’s private company has put a new spotlight on comments the president made in an interview with The New York Times last year. Asked if Mueller would be crossing a “red line” by looking into his finances and those of his family unrelated to Russia, Trump said he thought that would be “a violation” of Mueller’s authority.

Trump would not say whether he would fire Mueller if he did look into his finances.

White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders reiterated during her daily briefing Thursday that the president was cooperating with the inquiry and referred questions to the Trump Organization.

The Trump Organization has said that it never had real estate holdings in Russia, but witnesses recently interviewed by Mueller have been asked about a possible real estate deal in Moscow. In 2015, a longtime business associate of Trump’s emailed Trump’s lawyer, Michael Cohen, at his Trump Organization account claiming he had ties to President Vladimir Putin of Russia and said building a Trump Tower in Moscow would help Trump’s presidential campaign.

Trump signed a nonbinding “letter of intent” for the project in 2015 and discussed it three times with Cohen.