Tierney Sneed contributed reporting.
Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX) said Tuesday that Donald Trump Jr. would testify in front of the Senate Intelligence Committee following his release of emails in which a family acquaintance promised dirt on Hillary Clinton as part of the Russian government’s effort to help his father’s presidential campaign.
“What is your reaction to the emails that Donald Trump Jr. tweeted out,” one reporter in a scrum asked Cornyn.
“I don’t really have a direct comment,” the senator replied.
“Would you like to see Donald Trump Jr. testify?” another reporter asked Cornyn later.
“He will,” Cornyn replied, specifying that Trump would appear in front of the Senate Intelligence Committee.
A spokesperson for Cornyn later noted to TPM in an email that “he meant [Donald J. Trump Jr.] should testify,” and not necessarily that he will testify. “This is not any kind of announcement from the Committee. He said same thing yesterday on Fox,” the spokesperson noted, referring to an interview Cornyn gave Fox News Monday afternoon.
Just before Cornyn’s comments Tuesday, Donald Trump Jr. published what he said was the entire email chain leading up to his meeting with a Kremlin-linked Russian lawyer, along with Jared Kushner and Paul Manafort, following a family acquaintance telling him the lawyer had damaging information on Clinton as part of a government effort. Trump published the emails just as the New York Times published its own story on the correspondence.
On Monday, another member of the committee, Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME), said it “needs to interview him and others who attended the meeting,” referring to Trump, after earlier New York Times reporting on the June 9, 2016 gathering in Trump Tower.
And on Tuesday, before Trump published the emails, Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) said of the story: “It’s certainly another shoe that’s dropped that needs to be pursued and looked at.”
This post has been updated.
