Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley said that he will release the transcript of his committee’s interview with Donald Trump Jr., about a meeting at Trump Tower with Russian lawyers. Grassley said that his committee is finished looking into that matter, “so, now it’s time to start releasing the transcripts of all witness interviews we have done related to that meeting. Let’s get them out there for everyone to see,” Grassley said.
Donald Trump Jr., along with the president’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner and then campaign manager Paul Manafort, held a meeting with individuals connected to the Russian government in Trump Tower in June 2016. Trump Jr. had maintained that the meeting was about a popular adoption program that President Vladimir Putin had cancelled, but publicized emails show that the meeting was offered and granted on the basis that the Russians would be giving the Trump campaign “incriminating” evidence against Hillary Clinton. As far as is known, no such evidence was given during the meeting.
Trump Jr. sat for an interview with the Senate Judiciary Committee in September. The committee also plans to release written responses from Natalia Veselnitskaya, the Russian lawyer who was the main attendee of the meeting.
Democratic Committee members Sens. Sheldon Whitehouse and Richard Blumenthal pressed Chuck Grassley to release the documents yesterday. Release of the transcripts must be now be “followed by testimony in public and under oath by these witnesses and others,” Blumenthal said today.