Donald Trump Jr. finally agrees to testify for the Senate — in exchange for a sweetheart deal

Multiple news outlets are now reporting that Republicans on the Senate Intelligence Committee have reached a deal with failson Donald Trump Jr. to testify in a "private" interview. This would be in response to the subpoena for Trump Jr.'s testimony issued by committee chair Sen. Richard Burr, a move that sent fellow Republican senators into a tizzy and which led several Republican lawmakers to publicly encourage Jr. to defy the subpoena.

According to TheNew York Times, the negotiated deal treats Donald Trump Jr. like a particularly delicate flower. The "interview" with senators would be private, not public, and "no longer than two to four hours." Questions would be limited to only a set of topics negotiated in advance. The Hill further reports that the deal includes a promise from the committee that this will be the "last" time he is asked for testimony—regardless, apparently, of his answers or non-answers.

That's quite the deal for a man now known to have solicited assistance from a foreign government during perhaps the most consequential campaign of propaganda and espionage to ever be aimed at this nation, especially given that the Intelligence Committee is under exactly zero obligations to "negotiate" for his testimony at all. But Burr was under enormous pressure from Trump's many Republican allies and toadies to rescind his subpoena—and Junior had been threatening to cite the Fifth Amendment in an attempt to dodge Senate questioning outright.