Pressed by The Times’ Maggie Haberman on what the President knew about his sons’ financial stake in the Kazakh mining deal he signed off on, Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt offered a tidy bit of nothing. As far as she understood it, the sons knew better than to touch anything that might look like a conflict of interest.
Which is a nice line, except that Trump reportedly did the actual negotiating with Kazakhstan’s President himself. This detail did not come from a leaked memo but from the mining company’s own executive chairman.
The executive confirmed that Trump personally worked the deal, and also admitted he could “see how the optics might be disturbing to some people” — which is about as close to an on-record eye-roll as this story can possibly get.
Last year, the administration signed a critical minimum mining deal with Kazakhstan for a little-known U.S. company.
Haaberman asked Leavitt about this.
‘What did the President know about his son’s involvement in this arrangement, and when did he find out about it?” she asked.
“From my understanding, Maggie, nothing,” Lyin’ Leavitt said. “I’ve spoken to the President and his family about this.”