The House Intelligence Committee wants to hear from «everyone connected» to the June 2016 meeting with a Russian lawyer that Donald Tru…
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The House Intelligence Committee wants to hear from «everyone connected» to the June 2016 meeting with a Russian lawyer that Donald Trump Jr. helped arrange, the panel’s top Democrat said Tuesday.
Rep. Adam B. Schiff (D-Burbank) said investigators can no longer trust President Trump ‘s family to provide truthful information after his son’s shifting accounts of the meeting last summer, which was initiated by an acquaintance who promised damaging information about Democratic rival Hillary Clinton that was part of a broader Russian government effort to hurt her candidacy.
«What I think is notable here is the pattern, » Schiff said, referring to other Trump associates who over past months have had to acknowledge contacts with Russians that they previously denied or failed to disclose.
«They all come back to Russia, » Schiff said to reporters at the Capitol. «Of course, the profound question is why? And that is a question we need to answer.»
Schiff said the committee wants those connected with the meeting — even President Trump’s personal secretary, who is named in emails about the encounter that Donald Jr. released Tuesday — to provide information to the panel. The younger Trump was accompanied to the meeting in Trump Tower by Jared Kushner, the president’s son-in-law and confidant, and then-campaign manager Paul Manafort.
«We cannot rely on any public representations that are made by the family about their contacts with the Russians, » Schiff said. «We have now seen a very demonstrable pattern of obfuscation and dissembling about these meetings.»
Schiff, a former federal prosecutor, stopped short of saying criminal laws were violated, but called the meeting «absolutely not only a breach of norms, but a breach of civic responsibility to the country.»
«If you get approached by a foreign government offering to interfere in a presidential election, you go to the FBI, » he said. «You report it. That’s what a decent citizen would do.»
At a minimum, Trump Jr.’s handling of the meeting overture, with its apparent links to the Kremlin, was «unethical, » Schiff said. «This is a very serious business, whether criminal laws were violated or not.»
