Trump Jr, Kushner, Manafort to testify before Senate panels on Russia probe COMEY TRYING TO GET LEVERAGE THROUGH DIRT DOSSIER: TRUMP
POSSIBLE COLLUSION? The three met a Kremlinlinked lawyer to get dirt on Clinton during the presidential polls
US President Donald Trump’s son Donald Trump Jr, son-in-law Jared Kushner and former campaign manager Paul Manafort have been asked to appear before US senate committees next week to answer questions about the campaign’s alleged connections to Russia, officials said on Wednesday.
The three men are the closest associates of the president to be called to speak to lawmakers involved in probing Russian meddling in the 2016 US presidential election and possible collusion with the Trump campaign.
Trump, who came into office in January, has been dogged by allegations that his campaign officials were connected to Russia, which US intelligence agencies have accused of interfering in last year’s election. He has denied any collusion.
The US senate judiciary committee said on Wednesday that it had called Trump’s eldest son and Manafort to testify on July 26 at a hearing.
The president’s son released emails earlier this month that showed him eagerly agreeing to meet last year with a woman he was told was a Russian government lawyer who might have damaging information about Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton.
The meeting was also attended by Manafort and Kushner, who is now a senior adviser at the White House.
Kushner is scheduled to be interviewed by the Senate Intelligence Committee on Monday, July 24, behind closed doors.
A special counsel, Robert Mueller, is also conducting an investigation of Russian meddling in the US election and any collusion between Moscow and Trump’s campaign.
Senator Sheldon Whitehouse, a Democratic member of the Judiciary Committee, said the committee’s hearing would enable the panel to begin to get testimony under oath.
“There has been an enormous amount that has been said publicly but it’s not under oath, which means that people are free to omit matters or lie with relative impunity,” he told CNN. July 24, 2016: Asked about a suggestion by the Hillary Clinton campaign that Russia is trying to help his father's election, Trump Jr calls it “disgusting, it's so phoney” March 2017: Trump Jr tells the New York Times: "Did I meet with people that were Russian? I'm sure, I'm sure I did... But none that were set up" July 8, 2017: After news of the meeting with a Kremlinlinked Russian lawyer emerges, Trump Jr says the talks were about a programme to adopt Russian children
July 11, 2017: Trump Jr tweets the email correspondence arranging the meeting with the Russian lawyer January 15, 2017: On CBS' Face the Nation, Pence denies any member of the Trump campaign had contacts with Russians, terming them "bizarre rumours that have swirled around the candidacy".
July 11, 2017: Pence's spokesman says Trump Jr's meeting with the Russian lawyer happened before the vice president joined the ticket July 27, 2016: Trump tells a CBS affiliate: "I have nothing to do with Russia. I don't have any jobs in Russia. I'm all over the world but we're not involved in Russia" October 24, 2017: At a campaign rally in Florida, Trump says: "I have nothing to do with Russia, folks, I'll give you a written statement" May 11, 2017: Trump tells NBC News: "This Russia thing with Trump and Russia is a made-up story, it's an excuse by the Democrats for having lost”
May 18, 2017: Trump calls the enquiry into the alleged Russian interference a "witch hunt"
Donald Trump accused fired FBI director James Comey of trying to create leverage with a dossier alleged to contain compromising information about the president.
Comey’s apparent goal in a pre-inauguration encounter with Trump in which the veteran law enforcement official presented details of the dossier was to pressure the soon-to-be president into letting him keep his job, Trump alleged in an interview to The New York Times.
Trump said that about two weeks before his inauguration in January, Comey and other officials briefed him in New York on what US intelligence agencies say was Russian meddling in the election, with the goal of helping Trump defeat Hillary Clinton.
According to the president, Comey later pulled him aside and told him about a dossier compiled by a former British spy and alleged to contain embarrassing details about the president, including unsubstantiated claims that Russians possess videos involving Trump and prostitutes.
Trump said he thinks Comey told him about the dossier -which Trump dismissed as “made-up junk” -- to suggest he had something to hold over the president. “In my opinion, he shared it so that I would think he had it out there,” Trump said.
Asked if he thought Comey was seeking leverage over him, Trump said, “Yeah, I think so.”
Trump fired Comey in May and later said he had the FBI’s Russia investigation in mind when he did it. PTI