In the ongoing probe
Kushner agrees to appear as panel awaits word on Trump Jr., Manafort
into possible Russian influence with the Trump administration, Donald Trump Jr., Paul Manafort and Jared Kushner will testify in closed hearings next week.
WASHINGTON — Members of the Trump campaign’s inner circle, including his eldest son and son-in-law, are being called before Senate committees next week to talk about the 2016 presidential election.
The week has the potential to deliver the most high-profile congressional testimony involving the Russian meddling probes since former FBI Director James Comey appeared in June.
A lawyer for President Donald Trump’s son-in-law and adviser said Jared Kushner will speak to the Senate intelligence committee Monday.
Kushner is expected to answer the committee’s questions and not invoke his Fifth Amendment rights against self-incrimination, according to a person familiar with Kushner’s thinking.
The Kushner interview comes as the Senate Judiciary Committee also announced its intention to schedule Trump’s son Donald Trump Jr. and former Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort to testify before that panel in open session next Wednesday.
Trump Jr. is scheduled to appear July 26, according to a witness list released by the panel Wednesday.
Trump Jr.’s attorney, Alan Futerfas, did not respond Wednesday night to requests for comment about the hearing.
A lawyer for Manafort said that he and his legal team are reviewing the request and have not made a decision on which committee Manafort will speak with first.
Kushner, Manafort and Trump Jr. are expected to be grilled about their participation in a July 2016 meeting in Trump Tower in New York City with a Russian lawyer that Trump Jr. was told had Kremlin connections and could provide damaging information on presidential candidate Hillary Clinton.
Five other individuals were also present at the meeting.
The Russian lawyer, Natalia Veselnitskaya, also said Wednesday she was ready to testify before the Senate and “clarify the situation.”
The July 2016 meeting raised new questions about the Trump campaign’s possible ties to Moscow, which are being scrutinized by federal and congressional investigators. These questions have only intensified as the identities of other Russia-connected participants have become known.
“I am ready to clarify the situation behind the mass hysteria, but only through lawyers or testifying in the Senate,” Veselnitskaya said in an interview broadcast Wednesday on Kremlinfunded RT television.
“If the Senate wishes to hear the real story, I will be happy to speak up and share everything I wanted to tell Mr. Trump,” she added. That appeared to be a reference to Veselnitskaya’s previous statement that the meeting with Trump Jr. focused on U.S.-Russian adoption policies and a U.S. sanctions law.
Veselnitskaya has denied working for the Russian government.
Congressional investigators in both parties have said they want to hear from those involved in the meeting. The top Democrat on the Senate intelligence panel, Virginia’s Mark Warner, said the panel hasn’t yet invited Veselnitskaya to testify, but he wants to hear from her and others who attended.
Warner said “it’s still being worked out” whether some of his committee’s more high-profile witnesses, including Trump Jr. and Manafort, should testify publicly or privately.
The Senate and House panels occasionally hold open hearings. Warner said Trump Jr. has “no security clearances that I am aware of, so he should be able to testify in public.”
Meanwhile, the president railed against Attorney General Jeff Sessions in an interview Wednesday with The New York Times.
Trump said he never would have appointed Sessions as attorney general had he known Sessions would recuse himself from overseeing the Russia investigation.
He told the paper that Sessions’ decision to recuse himself from all matters related to Russia was “very unfair to the president.”
Trump also addressed the conversation he had with Russian President Vladimir Putin during a dinner for world leaders at a G-20 summit in Hamburg, Germany. Trump said the hourlong conversation consisted of “pleasantries more than anything else,” but said the two also discussed adoption.
Trump, who has aired his anger over the existence of the Russia probe, attacked several other figures connected to it, including Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, Special Counsel Robert Mueller and Comey.
Trump also suggested that the special counsel investigation was rife with conflicts, though he did not name them.
Trump also expressed reservations about Rosenstein, who appointed the special counsel. Trump expressed annoyance when learning that Rosenstein was from Baltimore, where he had served as a federal prosecutor.
“There are very few Republicans in Baltimore, if any,” Trump said.