Donald Trump Jr. told Congress that he did not speak to his father about the June 2016 Trump Tower meeting where the Trump campaign hoped to get damaging information from Russians on Hillary Clinton.
In Trump Jr’s Sept. 2017 testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee, released Wednesday, he was asked about the meeting between top campaign officials and a Russian attorney with ties to the Kremlin who supposedly had “dirt” on Clinton.
“Did you inform your father about the meeting or the underlying offer prior to the meeting?” a congressional investigator for the committee’s GOP majority asked.
“No, I did not,” Trump Jr. replied.
Later in the interview, Trump Jr. was asked whether he went up and talked to his father about the meeting after it ended.
“No, I wouldn’t have wasted his time with it,” Trump Jr. replied.
Democrats on the committee have raised the possibility that father and son could have discussed the proposed meeting while Trump Jr. was in the midst of arranging it with Russian pop star Emin Agalarov and his British publicist, Rob Goldstone.
In a news release, Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) pointed out that on the evening of June 6, hours after Trump Jr. first spoke to Agalarov “about this Hillary info,” Trump Jr. made an an eleven-minute call to a blocked number.
Trump Jr. testified that he could not recall who he spoke with, or whether his father used a blocked number.
As Feinstein’s office noted, former Trump campaign manager Corey Lewandowski testified before the House Intelligence Committee that Trump Sr.’s home number is blocked.
