Senate to release transcripts on Russian lawyer meeting
January 26, 2018 by admin
Filed under Latest Lingerie News
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Mr Trump Jr has been interviewed by several investigators in Washington
A US Senate committee plans to release transcripts of interviews with Trump aides who attended a 2016 meeting with a Russian lawyer at Trump Tower.
The transcripts include an interview with Donald Trump Jr, who confirmed he attended the meeting after he was promised dirt on Hillary Clinton.
The interviews are part of one of several inquiries into possible Russian collusion with the Trump campaign.
It was not immediately clear when the transcripts would be released.
Republican Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley said the panel would start releasing “all witness interviews that we have done related to that meeting” right away and “get them out to the public for everyone to see”.
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Dianne Feinstein, the ranking chairwoman, said she was “delighted” by Mr Grassley’s decision.
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Mr Grassley and Mrs Feinstein
The committee, which leads one of four inquiries into Trump officials, has interviewed other participants at the meeting, including music promoter Rob Goldstone, Russian-American lobbyist Rinat Akhmetshin and Anatoli Samochornov, the translator for Russian lawyer Natalia Veselnitskaya.
When the meeting was first revealed, Mr Trump Jr said in a statement that he attended to discuss US adoptions of Russian children.
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But he later changed his story to say that he had attended the meeting after he was promised information that would help defeat Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton.
It was later reported by several media outlets that President Trump has personally dictated the first misleading statement, claiming the meeting regarded adoptions.
Critics say Mr Trump’s involvement may constitute obstruction of justice.
Former White House Chief strategist Steve Bannon, who served Mr Trump during his campaign and throughout the first seven months of his presidency, has called the meeting “treasonous”.
Mr Bannon later clarified to say his comments were directed at campaign manager Paul Manafort, who had also attended the meeting.
The president’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, who also attended the meeting, was not interviewed as part of the committee’s probe.
Mr Grassley said during a hearing on Thursday that the “chances of getting a voluntary interview with Mr Kushner has been shot,” and blamed Mrs Feinstein for having “spooked” other potential witnesses by unilaterally releasing the transcript of the panel’s interview with Fusion GPS founder Glenn Simpson.
Fusion GPS was involved in producing the now-famous dossier which alleges ties between Mr Trump and the Kremlin.
Separately on Thursday, the Department of Justice inspector general informed Congress that a trove of text messages exchanged between FBI agents who investigated both Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump have now been recovered.
Republicans have scrutinised the text messages – which had been missing due to a technical glitch – between FBI lawyer Lisa Page and FBI agent Peter Strzok over alleged exchanges that disparage Donald Trump and other political figures.
Mr Trump, and his team, have claimed that the texts prove political bias at the FBI.
Mr Strzok was removed from special counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia investigation after the messages were discovered.
