The House Intelligence Committee interviewed on Wednesday Donald Trump Jr. For almost 7 hours, focusing on three main areas, according to sources.
Trump Jr.’s testimony centered on his meeting in June 2016 with Jared Kushner, Paul Manafort and a Russian attorney who claimed had damaging information about Hilary Clinton, his conversations with WikiLeaks in October 2016 and past business by the Trump Organization.
Trump Jr. told the committee that his father was not aware of the meeting with the Russian lawyer when it initially happened, as well as that he had not informed President Donald Trump of the private messages he had exchanged with WikiLeaks, sources say.
However, Trump Jr. told the committee that he had spoken to Trump communications director Hope Hicks as to his possible response to the New York Time’s inquiries which at that time was preparing to report his meeting with the lawyer.
After emails emerged that he had accepted to meet with the Russian lawyer at the Trump Tower, the president’s son said he had spoken with his father a few days later. Trump Jr., however, refused to disclose any information regarding that talk as he claimed a lawyer was present and the conversation was thus subject to attorney-client privilege.
Committee Democrats subsequently questioned the legitimacy of Trump Jr.’s privilege claim and noted they may seek a subpoena to compel him to answer.
“In my view, there is no attorney-client privilege that protects a discussion between father and son. This particular discussion revolves around a pivotal meeting. So, uh, we intend to persist and make sure we get answers to that question,” ranking member of the committee, Representative Adam B. Schiff, said.
The committee’s questions centered on what information was exchanged during the 2016 meeting, but the president’s son suggested no information had been produced and that the meeting was wrapped up quickly, ABC News reports.
Trump Jr. was also asked about his communications with WikiLeaks but he said they were only limited to the messages exchanged via Twitter and went no further. A Republican source added Trump Jr. was asked about some Trump Organization business going back decades.
Representative Jackie Speier criticized Trump Jr. on Wednesday for not answering the committee’s questions.
“My takeaway is he has a very serious case of amnesia and he was pretty non-responsive on a lot of issues that frankly, you would have a recollection of, considering it was just a year ago that many of these events took place,” she said.
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