It’s red ‘meet’ for all three probes

All three probes into suspected Russian collusion with the Trump campaign will focus on Donald Trump Jr.’s widening e-mail scandal.

The Senate intelligence committee is requesting documents and will seek testimony from Trump Jr., a source told Reuters on Tuesday. The House intelligence committee wants to interview everyone connected with the Trump Tower sit-down, the panel’s top Democrat said.

“This is obviously very significant, deeply disturbing, new public information about direct contact between the Russian government and its intermediaries and the very center of the Trump family, campaign and organization,” said Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.), the House committee’s ranking member. “Obviously, we need to get to the very bottom of what happened.”

Justice Department special counsel Robert Mueller will also examine the contacts, CNN reported.

Trump Jr. released his e-mails a day after the good-government group Common Cause filed complaints with Justice, Mueller and the Federal Election Commission.

The papers allege Trump Jr. and his dad’s campaign broke federal law by “soliciting a contribution from a foreign national,” and that “knowing and willful” violations can be prosecuted criminally.

Civil liability carries a fine of at least $5,000 while a felony conviction is punishable by up to five years in prison.

Larry Noble, a lawyer with the Campaign Legal Center, said, “I would think there’s evidence of a knowing and willful violation,” that could also expose Trump Jr., President Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner and then-campaign manager Paul Manafort to a federal conspiracy charge.

But Georgetown law professor Jonathan Turley said a campaignfinance violation would be difficult to prove.

“The central question would be whether a tip or the disclosure of information could be treated as a campaign contribution. And the problem with that interpretation is that it would envelop a huge range of political speech,” he said.