Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley sent a letter to Donald Trump Jr. Thursday requesting his testimony under oath. The letter stems from the revelation of a June 2016 meeting which was set up under the premise Trump Jr. would receive damaging information about Hillary Clinton from a Russian government source.
Speaking to CNN, Grassley justified the request by citing the Committee's duty to oversight and said he wanted to provide Trump Jr. with a venue to further clarify why the meeting took place.
"I think it's just raised a lot of questions but the real way that I feel comfortable inviting him is ever since President Trump was elected, it seems like every conversation that has come from somebody in the family where there's been some sort of issue, they've seemed always to be very, very open. I just think that he [Trump Jr.] would welcome the opportunity," Grassley said.
Trump Jr. released a series of emails on Tuesday about the meeting, but because multiple changes in his story, more questions than answers remain.
Here's my statement and the full email chain pic.twitter.com/x050r5n5LQ
— Donald Trump Jr. (@DonaldJTrumpJr) July 11, 2017
Here is page 4 (which did not post due to space constraints). pic.twitter.com/z1Xi4nr2gq
— Donald Trump Jr. (@DonaldJTrumpJr) July 11, 2017
Earlier this week, former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort was called to testify in front of the Committee about his failure to properly register with the Justice Department as a foreign agent before accepting more than $17 million from a pro-Russia political party in Ukraine.
“If he [Manafort] comes before our committee, and we’ll subpoena him if necessary," Grassley said. "Then obviously it’d be appropriate for anybody to get into anything that went on at that meeting, since he was at that meeting."
Grassley hopes Trump Jr.'s testimony will come as early as next week.
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