Donald Trump Jr. reaches deal for testimony in June
Washington: Donald Trump, Jr. and the Senate Intelligence Committee have reached a deal for the US President’s eldest son to appear before it behind closed doors in June, a media report said.
The agreement for Trump Jr.’s testimony comes after the committee issued a subpoena last month that sparked an intense blowback against Republican Chairman Richard Burr of North Carolina from the former’s allies and many of Burr’s colleagues, informed sources told CNN on Tuesday.
The interview will be limited to two-to-four hours and limited in scope to five-to-six topics, according to the sources.
But questions about the June 2016 Trump Tower meeting and the Trump Tower Moscow project will not be off limits.
Questions on Trump Tower Moscow and the Trump Tower meeting would be constrained to limited follow-ups, and if any of the same questions are asked from Trump Jr.’s initial 2017 interview, he will refer the committee to his prior testimony, the sources added.
Trump Jr. will also be required to answer questions about discrepancies between his past testimony and what other witnesses have told both the Senate committee and Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s team.
The two sides agreed it would be the last time Trump Jr. will be asked to come before the committee in relation to its investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 campaign, the sources told CNN.
Before the agreement was reached, the two sides were locked in a stand-off over the subpoena to Trump Jr. that nearly forced the North Carolina Republican to have to decide whether to hold the President’s son in contempt.
Trump Jr. faced a Monday deadline to respond to the committee’s subpoena, but the committee agreed to extend the deadline an additional day as committee aides and Trump Jr.’s lawyers worked to negotiate an agreement.
The release of the Mueller report has prompted questions about what Trump Jr told the Judiciary panel, including whom he spoke to about dirt on Hillary Clinton before the June 2016 Trump Tower meeting, and the breadth of discussions he had with the President’s former personal attorney Michael Cohen about the Trump Tower Moscow project.