What Does Mueller Want With Ivanka Trump?

The Los Angeles Times is reporting that Special Counsel Robert Mueller is looking into the involvement of the president’s daughter, Ivanka, in the June 2016 meeting held in Trump Tower between Donald Trump Jr. and several Russians.

Ivanka was not present at the meeting. Ivanka had nothing to do with the meeting. But according to the Times, she “exchanged pleasantries” with the Russians on their way out the door, which Mueller apparently thinks makes Ivanka a collusion suspect.

Washington Examiner: “According to the Los Angeles Times, the president’s eldest daughter spoke to Natalia Veselnitskaya and Russian-American lobbyist Rinat Akhmetshin as they exited Trump Tower following the meeting. A source told the paper that the two exchanged pleasantries by the Trump Tower elevator.”

“Mueller reportedly wants to know about every interaction between Trump’s family and inner circle and those at the meeting,” the article went on to say. “Mueller has also recalled one participant in the meeting for questioning as part of the federal probe into ties between the Russians and the Trump campaign.”

“The meeting took place between Trump Jr., Ivanka’s husband Jared Kushner, then-Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort, and the two individuals Ivanka Trump spoke with at the elevator. A Russian language translator, a U.S.-based employee of a Russian real estate group, and a British music promoter who helped set up the meeting were also present at Trump Tower for the meeting.”

Beyond bizarre. This is not a question of Mueller being thorough. The special counsel is trying to keep the pressure up on Trump and his people by going out of his way to investigate the president’s daughter over absolutely nothing.

Who’s next? Trump’s landscaper? His cook?

I am perfectly willing to let Mueller have as much rope as possible because, in the end, he will have a nothingburger. He will try to build an obstruction of justice case against Trump that the media will blow up into a “constitutional crisis” that demands the president be removed, but even there he will have to get very creative to pull it off.

But after spending all this money and being egged on by Democrats for months, he’s going to have to deliver on his implied mission: give the opposition the ammunition they need to overturn an election they think they should have won.