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Ivanka Trump 'not concerned' over threat of Russia probe

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AFP Washington

President Donald Trump's daughter Ivanka said Friday that she is not worried about any threat that the Mueller Russia meddling investigation might pose to her family.

The senior White House advisor, who is married to Jared Kushner, another of the president's closest advisors, told ABC News that there is "nothing" of substance in the 21-month-old probe by Special Counsel Robert Mueller into possible collusion between Moscow and President Trump's 2016 election campaign.

Mueller has already charged six former Trump aides and associates with various crimes.

Given that the investigation could nearly be over, ABC interviewer Abby Huntsman asked Ivanka Trump in an interview, "Are you concerned about anyone in your life that you love being involved?" "No. There's nothing there," Trump answered.

 

"Yet it's created weeks and weeks and months of headlines. I'm not. I'm really not" concerned, she said.

The rare interview with the president's 37-year-old-daughter came in conjunction with the launch of her new "Women's Global Development and Prosperity Initiative" to help boost women in developing countries.

She has said little about the Mueller probe, which is believed to be honing in on her father, husband and brother Donald Trump Jr over their involvement in contacts with Russia during the 2016 presidential race.

Mueller has revealed very little about his interests, but court documents and lawyers have suggested he is focused both on possible collusion and obstruction allegations against members of the Trump family.

ABC asked Ivanka about her own involvement in a Moscow real estate project that recently-revealed documents and court filings showed the Trump family pursued right up to the time of the 2016 election, despite President Trump's previous claims that the project was given up at the beginning of 2016.

Documents showed President Trump had personally signed an initial letter of intent on the deal with the Russian developer.

While she was deeply involved in the Trump Organization, the president's real estate business, Ivanka said she knew "literally almost nothing" about the Moscow Trump Tower project.

"There was never a binding contract," she said.

"We could have had 40 or 50 deals like that, that were floating around, that somebody was looking at. Nobody visited it to see if it was worth our time. So this was not exactly like an advanced project.

Disclaimer: No Business Standard Journalist was involved in creation of this content

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First Published: Feb 09 2019 | 12:05 AM IST

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