What happened in the Russia investigation while you weren't watching

President Donald Trump faced a whole mess of developments this week in the Department of Justice’s investigation of whether his campaign helped Russia swing the U.S. election.

The evolution has brought the investigation closer and closer to the president himself. First, Special Counsel Robert Mueller went after Trump’s business ties. Now, Mueller’s team is reportedly looking into whether Trump helped his son hide details about meeting with a Russian lawyer who offered dirt on Hillary Clinton back in June 2016.

Mueller also stepped up his scrutiny of Trump’s former campaign manager Paul Manafort, who’s long been a key figure in the Russia investigation. Both Manafort and Trump’s former National Security adviser Michael Flynn resigned after scrutiny over their questionable ties to the Kremlin.

Lawyers working for Mueller have issued subpoenas to numerous Washington lobbying firms for information on their relationships with consulting firms led by Flynn and Manafort, the Washington Post reported.

The Washington Post also revealed that Trump’s company was working toward a deal to build a Trump Tower in Moscow at the time he was campaigning to become president of the United States.

Felix Sater, one of Trump’s business associates, also wrote a bold email —related to the Trump Tower Russia project and obtained by the New York Times — to Trump’s lawyer, Michael Cohen, in November 2015. “Our boy can become president of the USA and we can engineer it,” Slater wrote. “I will get all of Putins [sic] team to buy in on this. I will manage this process.”

Through weeks of negotiations, Don Jr. avoided public testimony in front of the Senate Judiciary Committee about his meeting with that Russian lawyer who’d offered to reveal information that could hurt Clinton’s campaign. But he has agreed to a transcribed interview. Although the date hasn’t been publicly specified, one has been set.

Don Jr.’s testimony comes at a volatile time in his father’s presidency. Mueller and his investigators reportedly just started looking into Trump’s role in drafting Don Jr.’s response to holding the meeting with the Russian lawyer. In July, the Washington Post reported that Trump “dictated” the statement, which claimed the meeting was just about Russian adoptions under U.S. sanctions. Emails later released by Don Jr., however, proved that characterization false.

Now, investigators want to know whether Trump helped his son lie, and if the president knew the meeting was happening. Team Trump has maintained that Trump didn’t know and did “what any father would do.”

In an unusually aggressive move, Mueller also issued subpoenas to Manafort’s lawyer and spokesperson, CNN reported. Prosecutors usually avoid subpoenaing the lawyer of someone under investigation because of issues surrounding attorney-client privilege.

Manafort continued to feel the heat — Mueller’s team has reportedly teamed up with New York’s attorney general to look into Manafort and his finances.

That could mean Mueller wants to bring state-level charges against Manafort, which Trump couldn’t pardon, even if he wanted to. The president can only pardon federal crimes.

Mueller has been turning the spotlight onto Manafort in recent weeks. In July, the FBI, on orders from Mueller, conducted a predawn raid on Manafort’s home, which turned up documents that Manafort had already handed over.

But Manafort shouldn’t panic — Trump’s longtime lawyer, Michael Cohen, denied to Congress that Trump campaign officials colluded in any way with the Russian government to undermine Hillary Clinton’s candidacy.

In an eight-page letter, Cohen refuted, point-by-point, the salacious dossier from earlier this year that alleged Trump’s campaign did collude with Russia and portrays Cohen as a central figure. One allegation puts Cohen in Prague for secret meetings with a Russian official, but Cohen wrote that he’d never been to Prague, and his passport shows no record of visits there.

Still, a Russian lobbyist — one of the many people who attended the meeting between Don Jr. and a Russian lawyer at Trump Tower — testified to a grand jury as part of Mueller’s Russia probe, the Financial Times reported.

As the week came to a close, the New York attorney’s general office wasn’t the only friend Mueller may have made. He’s reportedly also teamed up with the IRS (which, of course, has access to Trump’s undisclosed tax returns).

Specifically, Mueller is enlisting the help of the IRS Criminal Investigation unit, which investigates financial crime, like money laundering and tax evasion. Manafort and Flynn’s financial activities, in particular, have come under scrutiny in the Russia investigation.

Rex Santus compiled this report.