Senate Judiciary Chairman Chuck Grassley signaled Thursday that Donald Trump Jr. will ultimately have to testify publicly before his panel, something Democrats have been demanding for weeks.
Grassley and the committee’s top Democrat, Sen. Dianne Feinstein, are moving closer to reaching an agreement on a range of actions as part of their committee’s investigation into Russia interference into last year’s election as well as any administration interference with the FBI.
Asked about having a public hearing with the President’s eldest son, Grassley told CNN: “Obviously, Feinstein wants to do it, and I think there’s no way of avoiding it.”
Donald Trump Jr. has come under scrutiny from multiple committees on Capitol Hill because of the June 2016 meeting when he — along with the President’s son-in-law Jared Kushner and former campaign chairman Paul Manafort — met with Russian operatives, after the younger Trump was promised dirt on the Clinton campaign. He interviewed in private last month with Senate judiciary committee staff, but Democratic lawmakers have called on Grassley to schedule a public hearing so they can question him about the meeting and what the President knew about it.
The Senate intelligence committee is still probing the meeting and plans to meet with Trump Jr. in a classified session in the coming weeks.
“Before this is over with, we will know everything about the Don Jr. meeting,” Senate Intelligence Chairman Richard Burr told CNN. “We haven’t interviewed everybody yet. … There are still some individuals who might have participated in that meeting that we have yet to get in. “
The Senate intelligence committee leaders say they want to interview everyone else who attended the Trump Tower meeting before bringing in Trump Jr., saying he’s provided information voluntarily to the committee so far.
“If he hadn’t been cooperative, we would’ve subpoenaed him,” Burr said of Trump Jr.
