Trump Jr ‘should have called FBI’
UNITED STATES: Donald Trump Jr should have contacted the FBI rather than pursuing a purported offer from the Russian government to help to damage Hillary Clinton, according to the man US President Donald Trump has picked to head the agency.
After the president declared his beleaguered son to be ‘‘innocent’’, Christopher Wray told senators yesterday that anyone approached by a foreigner offering help to sway US elections should have reported the encounter.
‘‘I would hope anyone who was aware of an effort or attempt to interfere with our elections would report that to the appropriate authorities,’’ he said.
Speaking at his Senate confirmation hearing, Wray also contradicted the president in defence of Robert Mueller, the special counsel investigating alleged Russian interference in last year’s election. Trump had tweeted earlier: ‘‘This is the greatest Witch Hunt in political history. Sad!’’
The new FBI chief told the hearing: ‘‘I do not consider Director Mueller to be on a witch-hunt.’’
Wray, 50, was nominated by Trump to replace James Comey, whom the president fired earlier this year.
The hearings opened amid a political firestorm over the revelations that Trump’s eldest son and closest advisers sought help from Russia during last year’s election campaign.
Yesterday two Democratic congressmen formally introduced a resolution in the House of Representatives to impeach the president, accusing him of obstruction of justice. The article of impeachment, introduced by Brad Sherman, from California, and backed by Al Green, from Texas, is unlikely to be endorsed in the Republican-dominated House.
The White House has been reeling from the disclosure that Donald Trump Jr met a Kremlinlinked lawyer after being told that she would share politically damaging information about Clinton. The purported documents about Clinton had come from Russian government sources, he was told in an email.
The meeting with Natalia Veselnitskaya, described in the messages as ‘‘a Russian government attorney’’, was set up on June 7 last year and took place at Trump Tower two days later. Donald Trump Jr, his brother-in-law Jared Kushner, and Paul Manafort, who became manager for the Trump campaign, all attended.
Donald Trump Jr told Fox News that his father did not know of the discussion. However, critics voiced scepticism, pointing to an announcement that the president made hours after his son finalised arrangements for the meeting, promising a ‘‘major speech’’ on ‘‘all of the things that have taken place with the Clintons’’.
The White House has defended the meeting as a standard practice for opposition research and reiterated that the president did not know of the meeting or emails until this week.
Donald Trump insisted yesterday that his White House was ‘‘functioning perfectly, focused on Healthcare, Tax Cuts/reform & many other things’’. He added: ‘‘I have very little time for watching TV.’’
The statement was an apparent reference to reports of a West Wing ‘‘paralysed’’ by the fallout from his son’s meeting, which first emerged as Trump was returning from the G20 summit in Germany last weekend. No public events were scheduled for the president for the first three days of the week, and he was said to have been hunkered down in the White House, glued to cable television news.
At the Senate hearing, Lindsey Graham, a Republican senator for South Carolina, pressed Wray to comment on Donald Trump Jr’s emails and the threat from Russia.
Asked whether Donald Trump Jr should have called the FBI, Wray told the senators: ‘‘Any threat or effort to interfere with our elections from any nation state or any non-state actor is the kind of thing the FBI would want to know.’’
He said he had ‘‘no reason whatsoever to doubt the assessment of the intelligence community’’ that Russia had interfered with the election process.
Four congressional committees are holding inquiries in parallel with Mueller into the alleged election meddling. The House and Senate intelligence committees have said they will press for interviews under oath from Donald Trump Jr, Kushner and Manafort.
Wray pledged to lead the FBI with independence, telling the senators: ‘‘My loyalty is to the constitution, the rule of law and the mission of the FBI.’’ – The Times