Sen. Mark Warner (D-VA), the top Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee, said Tuesday that there are “no excuses” for Donald Trump, Jr.’s shifting story about a meeting he attended during the 2016 campaign with the knowledge that he would be offered damaging information about his father’s likely presidential opponent as part of a Russian government effort to help the Trump campaign.
“This is black and white: Trump officials at the highest levels knew Russia was working to aid Donald Trump & welcomed Russia’s interference,” Warner tweeted.
He added that “there are no excuses for what we’ve seen in the last 24 hours.” Warner did not mention Trump Jr. by name, but appeared to be referring to reports published over the weekend about the eldest Trump son’s meeting with Russian lawyer Natalia Veselnitskaya.
“Lying is not a rookie mistake,” Warner wrote. “We now know the denials of contacts with Russians that we’ve heard during the campaign, transition & administration are all patently false.”
This is black and white: Trump officials at the highest levels knew Russia was working to aid Donald Trump & welcomed Russia's interference.
— Mark Warner (@MarkWarner) July 11, 2017
There are no excuses for what we’ve seen in the last 24 hours. Lying is not a rookie mistake.
— Mark Warner (@MarkWarner) July 11, 2017
This investigation will move forward in a bipartisan way. We need to follow the facts wherever they lead.
— Mark Warner (@MarkWarner) July 11, 2017