Republican Senator Fights to Shield Trump Jr. from Public Hearing

Senate Judiciary Chairman Chuck Grassley (R-IA) is staging an intervention to prevent President Donald Trump’s oldest son from facing a public hearing by pivoting to supposed concerns about other issues.

Democratic Senator Chris Coons (D-DE), who also serves on the committee, had requested Grassley investigate Trump Jr. for what may be criminal lying. Trump Jr. claimed to not have known about attempted election interference by foreign entities other than Russia.

"This testimony is contradicted by multiple recent news reports that three months before the election," Coons wrote in a letter to Grassley. "Mr. Trump Jr. and campaign adviser Stephen Miller met with George Nader, an emissary for the crown princes of the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia; Joel Zamel, an Israeli social media specialist linked to Israeli intelligence and the Emirati royal court; and Erik Prince, a campaign donor and private security contractor with business in the Middle East."  

“I would suggest Mr. Trump Jr.’s attorneys be asked about these press accounts,” Grassley deflected in his response.

“While it is possible there could be contradictions, there are potentially innocuous explanations,” Grassley offered without any serious explanation of what possible “innocuous” explanation could exist for Trump Jr. claiming not to have knowledge about non-Russian foreign efforts to interfere in the election when he clearly did.

Grassley is trying to turn the tables on Democrats by suggesting they’re uninterested in discrepancies by other witnesses, which is materially irrelevant to whether Trump Jr. lied to the panel.