Politics

Donald Trump Jr., Paul Manafort invited to testify at Senate hearing next week

Key Points
  • The Senate Judiciary Committee lists Donald Trump Jr. and Paul Manafort as witnesses at a public hearing next week, though they have not personally confirmed that they will attend.
  • President Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner will also be interviewed by the Senate Intelligence Committee in a closed session.

The Senate Judiciary Committee has invited Donald Trump Jr. and Paul Manafort to testify at a hearing set for next Wednesday.

President Donald Trump's eldest son and his former campaign manager have not personally confirmed that they will attend the hearing.

Should they testify, Manafort and the younger Trump will likely face a grilling about a meeting they both sat in on last year at Trump Tower. Trump Jr. took the meeting after receiving an offer of compromising information on then-candidate Hillary Clinton as part of Russia and its government's support for his father's campaign, according to emails he released.

The Senate Intelligence Committee, likewise, will interview Jared Kushner, Trump's son-in-law and White House advisor, in a closed session on Monday, according to NBC News. He also attended the meeting at Trump Tower.

A spokesman for Judiciary Committee Chairman Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, confirmed that the hearing to which Trump Jr. and Manafort were invited will be public. In a statement, top Judiciary Committee members said they asked for documents related to Trump Jr., Manafort, the Trump Organization and the Trump campaign.

The committee also invited Glenn Simpson, the founder of a research firm behind a notorious dossier containing several explosive, unverified claims about President Trump's Russia ties, to testify and asked him for documents.

The panel said it is prepared to issue subpoenas to get the information.

Trump Jr. and the president have argued that he did nothing wrong by taking the meeting. The younger Trump says that the meeting did not yield useful information, while the elder Trump contends that others in political campaigns would have done the same thing.

Among the people who attended the meeting were a lawyer who was described to Trump Jr. as a "Russian government attorney," a Russian-born American lobbyist, and a representative for the Agalarov family, wealthy developers and friends of the Trumps who helped set up the meeting.

The meeting has put fresh scrutiny on the Trump campaign amid federal and congressional probes into Russian attempts to influence the 2016 election and whether the Trump campaign coordinated with the Kremlin.