Donald Trump Jr. told Senate investigators on Thursday that he set up a 2016 meeting with a Russian lawyer after being promised damaging information about Hillary Clinton because it was important to learn about her “fitness” to be President, according to a report about the conversation.
The eldest son of President Donald Trump said in a prepared statement that nothing came of the meeting at Trump Tower and that he did not collude with the Russian government campaign meddling operation, according to The New York Times who obtained a copy of Trump Jr.’s statement.
Trump Jr.’s Thursday interview with the Senate judiciary committee staff could be the prelude for other full-scale public hearings focusing on his role as an unofficial campaign aide to his father.
Trump Jr. became a central figure in the Russia drama after it emerged that he had attended a meeting in June 2016 with a Russian lawyer with connections to the Kremlin after being promised information damaging to Hillary Clinton.
The Senate intelligence committee has been the main panel in the chamber looking into the Russia matter, though the judiciary committee under GOP Chairman Chuck Grassley has intensified its focus in recent months.
Sen. Dianne Feinstein told CNN Wednesday there would be a public hearing with the President’s son “at an appropriate time” and that he would be subpoenaed if necessary.
Senate intelligence committee chairman Richard Burr, and the panel’s top Democrat, Mark Warner, privately met Wednesday and said that they’d like to talk to other attendees of the Trump Tower meeting before meeting with Trump Jr., which could push back the panel’s plans to hear from the President’s son this month.