The Net Widens

Last night, McClatchy News Service broke the story (link here) that Robert Mueller, who leads the criminal investigation into the President and his associates, has widened his group's focus on some of Donald Trump's partners and also his lawyer.

As the article notes, "the move to question business associates of the President adds a significant new element to the Mueller investigation." And there's a lot of deals to investigate, and quite a lot of them are dodgy at best.

In particular, questions about whether Trump and his business associates knowingly worked as a front for money laundering. I've written about Trump and the extensive money-laundering accusations in previous entries where I linked to published articles about the allegations (see, for instance, here, here, here, here, and here).

Trump's indicted National Security Advisor has been staying out of public spotlight since word leaked that he is now cooperating with Mueller's investigation. At the same time, the McClatchy scoop suggests this may the answer as to how exactly Mueller plans to use Flynn's cooperation.

Trump's former right-hand advisor Steve Bannon has said more than once in public since he left the White House that he saw a great deal of questionable business practices from inside the campaign, including the possibility of money laundering. As another former insider with just as much access as Bannon, Flynn may know where to find the smoking guns.

This McClatchy scoop is yet another important development to watch -- often nebulous leaks like this have come into focus with time as more about Mueller's criminal investigation becomes public knowledge. Stay tuned.