WASHINGTON (AP) – President Donald Trump’s oldest son is scheduled to make his first appearance on Capitol Hill Thursday as part of a Senate investigation into Russian meddling in the presidential election and a meeting he had with Russians during his father’s campaign last year.
Donald Trump Jr. will be interviewed by staff on the Senate Judiciary Committee, which is one of three congressional committees investigating the meddling and possible Russian links to his Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign.
Trump Jr. released a series of emails in July that detailed preparations for the June 2016 meeting. The emails show he took the meeting expecting that he would be receiving damaging information about Democrat Hillary Clinton as part of what was described to him as a Russian government effort to aid the Trump campaign.
Special counsel Robert Mueller and the House and Senate intelligence committees are also investigating the meeting, which was attended by Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, and then-campaign chairman, Paul Manafort. A grand jury has heard testimony about it.
Staffers are expected to focus on the 2016 meeting but could also probe any other possible connections Trump’s family had with Russia. Trump Jr. agreed to the interview in July after Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, subpoenaed him and Manafort. The committee withdrew the subpoenas after the two agreed to be interviewed privately by staff, and Grassley said they both would eventually be questioned by senators in a public hearing.