Orlando Sentinel

The Supreme Court

- By Chris Megerian chris.megerian@latimes.com

will decide whether a Christian baker can refuse to make a wedding cake for a same-sex couple despite a civil rights law.

WASHINGTON — After his father was elected president, Donald Trump Jr. said he would turn his attention away from politics and back to running the family business empire.

But President Donald Trump’s eldest son has been unable to completely turn the page as investigat­ors scrutinize his contacts with Russian intermedia­ries during the campaign last year. He’s scheduled to return to Capitol Hill on Wednesday to answer questions behind closed doors with the House intelligen­ce committee.

At issue are recent revelation­s about communicat­ions between Trump Jr. and WikiLeaks, the secretive web organizati­on that released hacked Democratic Party emails as part of what U.S. intelligen­ce officials say was a Russian effort to help sway the election to Trump.

Trump Jr. publicly disclosed the private Twitter messages, which were exchanged from Sept. 2016 through July 2017, after their existence was revealed by The Atlantic.

Most of the outreach from WikiLeaks went unanswered by Trump Jr., according to the messages he released. But two days after WikiLeaks asked him to help promote a website where it was posting emails stolen from the account of Hillary Clinton’s campaign manager, Trump Jr. shared the link on his Twitter account.

The communicat­ions with WikiLeaks stoked fresh interest in Trump Jr.’s broader role in the campaign.

He already has acknowledg­ed meeting in June 2016 with a Russian lawyer who promised that she had incriminat­ing informatio­n on Hillary Clinton that could help his father’s White House bid.

A lawyer for Trump Jr. did not respond to a request for comment Tuesday.

 ?? JOHN MOORE/GETTY ?? Donald Trump Jr. met with a Russian lawyer and exchanged messages with WikiLeaks during the 2016 campaign.
JOHN MOORE/GETTY Donald Trump Jr. met with a Russian lawyer and exchanged messages with WikiLeaks during the 2016 campaign.

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