FBI counterintelligence officials are looking into the financing and negotiations surrounding the Trump International Hotel and Tower in Vancouver, which opened in February 2017 and was spearheaded by Ivanka Trump, CNN reported Thursday, citing unnamed current and former officials.
The tower attracted foreign buyers quickly after it opened, CNN reported, though the network noted that it was not clear why investigators have focused in on the project.
CNN and NBC News reported last month that Ivanka Trump was among the scores of White House aides still operating under interim security clearances as of November of last year.
The Trump Organization has a licensing deal with the tower’s developer, Joo Kim Tiah. Both Tiah and Ivanka Trump acknowledged working closely together on the project during the 2015 launch of a Trump-branded VIP service for condo residents, CNN reported.
The Trump Organization’s chief legal officer, Alan Garten, told CNN that “the company’s role was and is limited to licensing its brand and managing the hotel. Accordingly, the company would have had no involvement in the financing of the project or the sale of units.”
A spokesperson for Ivanka Trump’s legal team said in part, referring to her security clearance, that “Nothing in the new White House policy has changed Ms. Trump’s ability to do the same work she has been doing since she joined the Administration.”
The report comes after dozens of White House staff with interim security clearances — most notably Jared Kushner — were reportedly downgraded to Secret level access recently. The Washington Post reported Tuesday that at least four nations had discussed ways to manipulate Kushner based on his overseas business dealings.
The New York Times reported Wednesday night that Kushner’s family’s company got two major loans from Apollo Global Management and Citigroup, respectively, after Kushner met with officials from those companies at the White House.
