President Donald Trump’s former longtime bodyguard will face questions from congressional investigators next week about a 2013 trip both men took to Moscow, the Washington Post reported Friday.
Keith Schiller, once Trump’s body man in the White House and the longtime director of security for the Trump Organization, traveled with Trump to Moscow in 2013 for the Miss Universe pageant.
According to unnamed people familiar with the House Intelligence Committee’s investigation, the Washington Post reported, the committee has called for Schiller to appear for an interview Tuesday and question him about allegations included in a dossier created by former British intelligence agent Christopher Steele.
Steele produced the dossier for Fusion GPS, a research firm previously hired by the conservative news website Free Beacon that was at the time working for the Hillary Clinton campaign and the DNC.
Among the dossier’s many claims is that Russian officials obtained compromising information on Trump during his 2013 trip, including that he allegedly hired prostitutes and brought them to his Moscow hotel room.
According to the Post, Schiller’s role in personally delivering former FBI Director James Comey’s termination letter is of interest to the committee, as well.
An unnamed U.S. official “familiar with the inquiry” told the Post, referring to Schiller: “He can expect to be asked about any interaction with Russians, with or without Trump.”
Ty Cobb, the lawyer overseeing the Trump White House’s response to the Russia investigation, told the Post: “[T]he White House is delighted that Mr. Schiller will have an opportunity to shed some light on these scandalous allegations, and we are sure that his testimony will be of great interest to all fair-minded people.”
The Post noted that Trump told the New York Times in July, referring to Schiller’s reaction to the dossier’s claims: “He said, ‘What kind of crap is this?’ I went there for one day for the Miss Universe contest, I turned around, I went back.”
Before Schiller left the White House in September, he was closely involved in Trump’s campaign and administrative operations.
Schiller escorted, physically, Univision journalist Jorge Ramos from a press conference after Ramos insisted he had a right to ask Trump about his immigration enforcement agenda. (“I didn’t escort him out. You’ll have to talk to security. Whoever security is escorted him out,” Trump said of his bodyguard of 18 years following the incident.)
