New Delhi:
A Senate panel has announced that US President Donald Trump’s eldest son and a former campaign manager will testify before Congress next week as part of US investigations into the Trump team’s alleged contacts with Russia. Trump’s son along with Paul Manafort are scheduled to testify in an open hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee at 10 am (local time) on Wednesday.
Last year, the duo attended a controversial meeting with a Russian lawyer wherein they were expecting to receive dirt from Moscow on Trump’s 2016 election rival Hillary Clinton. Citing Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner’s lawyer, CNN reported that Kushner will testify before the Senate Intelligence Committee on Monday, albeit in a closed-door session.
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Kushner also attended the June 2016 meeting with the Russian lawyer, Natalia Veselnitskaya. He is married to Trump’s daughter Ivanka Trump. Trump Jr sent shockwaves through Washington when he confirmed the meeting by releasing a series of emails in which the now-president’s son was told the campaign could get “very high level and sensitive information” that was “part of Russia and its government’s support for Mr Trump.”
It put Trump’s son and son-in-law at the centre of a burgeoning scandal involving multiple US investigations into whether Trump associates colluded with Moscow in its efforts to tilt the 2016 election in the Republican’s favour.
Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley and top Democrat Dianne Feinstein yesterday warned in letters to those testifying next week that they need to “preserve all relevant documents in your possession... related to Russian interference in the 2016 election, including documents related to your or the Trump campaign’s contacts with Russian government officials, associates or representatives.” The senators said they would issue subpoenas if the witnesses did not produce the required documents.
With PTI inputs.
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