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WASHINGTON – Donald Trump Jr. and the Republican-controlled Senate Intelligence Committee reached an agreement Tuesday allowing the president's eldest son to sit in a private meeting with senators over the next few weeks. intra-party impasse.
The agreement was reached after an aggressive push by Trump's young allies, who accused intelligence commission chairman Richard M. Burr of North Carolina of giving in to the Democrats by issuing a subpoena. son of the latter. They called the effort a political success against the White House, using the president's son as fodder.
Last week, Burr told other Republican senators that the president's son had twice agreed to go for a voluntary interview, but did not show up, which forced him to be summoned. to appear.
Trump's lawyer had prepared a hot letter to send to the committee, telling his members that Donald Trump Jr. would not submit to open questions at a panel of several Democrats running for president. aware of its contents. The lawyers were prepared to send the letter on Monday, facing a deadline to respond to the subpoena.
But they received a call from the committee's assistants, asking if there was a "reasonable" way, according to a person familiar with the events.
The compromise was an appearance by Trump in mid-June, with questions limited to about half a dozen subjects, the time not exceeding two to four hours, according to an informed person. Another person, who would not be identified, contested the fact that the scope of the subjects had been limited.
A spokeswoman for Mr. Burr declined to comment.
The gesture of Mr. Trump's younger associates was quite out of his father's playbook – set the terms of the debate at the very extreme of the discussion saying that he would not appear, and then concluded a deal and looked gracious.
The agreement gives Mr. Burr a ramp off the confrontation. If the youngest, Mr. Trump, had refused to appear, the president would have faced a painful choice: to insult the congressional proceedings against the president's eldest son and jeopardize the independence of his two-year investigation. on Russian electoral interference by letting him challenge him.
Mr. Trump personally asked why his son would be summoned, the special advocate, Robert S. Mueller III, having not been able to prove the existence of a conspiracy between his campaign and Russia. Although the president declared a total war against democratic investigations in the House, he had largely left the Senate Intelligence Committee investigation to proceed with minimal attention.
When asked about the assignment on Monday, Mr. Trump stated that he considered it unfair.
"It's really a difficult situation because my son has spent, I guess, more than 20 hours testifying about something that, according to Mueller, was 100% OK," he told reporters. the White House. "And now, they want him to testify again. I do not know why. I do not know why, but it seems very unfair to me.
Mr. Burr did not publicly comment on the stalemate. In private, however, last week, he had suggested to his colleagues that the subpoena was that of young Mr. Trump.
At a private luncheon, he told Republican Senate colleagues that Donald Trump Jr. had agreed twice – one in March and one in April – to return to the committee for a voluntary interview, then to remove. Mr. Burr stated that it was only after re-asking in April that the committee authorize a subpoena.
Relatives of Donald Trump Jr. said his position at the request of the committee had changed after the publication of Mueller's report late last month. The report said Mueller's investigators had planned to lay charges against the youngest Mr Trump following an infamous meeting in June 2016 at Trump Tower with a Russian lawyer promising to "dirty" Hillary Clinton. They finally decided not to do it.
Senate investigators would like to interview the youngest Mr. Trump about this meeting, as well as his knowledge of the draft project of the Trump Tower in Moscow.
The youngest, Mr. Trump, had an interview with the committee investigators in 2017 and met a handful of other congressional committees for dozens of hours. The Intelligence Committee has asked him to ask questions again to the senators themselves, who are trying to close their two-year investigation into Russian interference in the elections.
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