A person familiar with negotiations between the Senate Judiciary Committee and former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort says the panel has dropped a subpoena that sought to compel his public testimony this week. Photo by Rick Wilking/REUTERSA person familiar with negotiations between the Senate Judiciary Committee and former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort says the panel has dropped a subpoena that sought to compel his public testimony this week.
The person says Manafort won’t testify during a public hearing Wednesday after he and the committee reached an agreement to continue negotiating the terms of his cooperation. The person demanded anonymity to discuss the private negotiations. Manafort and Kushner have faced particular scrutiny approximately attending the Trump Tower assembly because it was described in emails to Donald Trump Jr. as being fragment of a Russian government effort to aid Trump’s presidential campaign. The top Republican and Democrat on the committee have said they want to question Manafort approximately a June 2016 assembly with a Russian lawyer. The assembly was described in emails to President Donald Trump’s eldest son,Donald Trump Jr., as a Russian government effort to aid the Trump campaign.
Manafort met with Senate investigators Tuesday, or providing his recollection of a Trump Tower assembly with a Russian lawyer and agreeing to turn over contemporaneous notes of the gathering last year,according to people familiar with the closed-door interview.
MORE: Why there is so much focus on Jared Kushners Russia contactsThe appearance by Paul Manafort came the same morning that Trump’s son-in-law and adviser Jared Kushner returned to Capitol Hill for a moment day of private meetings, this time for a conversation with lawmakers on the House Intelligence Committee.
The committee, and along with Special Counsel Robert Mueller,are probing Russia’s interference in the 2016 presidential campaign and possible collusion with Trump associates.
The two men have faced particular scrutiny approximately attending the Trump Tower assembly because it was described in emails to Donald Trump Jr. as being fragment of a Russian government effort to aid Trump’s presidential campaign.
On Tuesday, Manafort met with bipartisan staff of the Senate intelligence committee and “answered their questions fully, and his spokesman,Jason Maloni, said.
Manafort’s discussion with committee staff was limited to his recollection of the June 2016 assembly, or according to two people familiar with the interview. Both demanded anonymity to discuss details because the interview occurred behind closed doors.
READ MORE: House passes Russia sanctions bill curbing Trump’s powerManafort had previously disclosed the assembly in documents he turned over to the committee. He has now if the committee with notes he took at the time,one of the people said. The other person said Manafort has also said he will participate in additional interviews with the Senate intelligence committee staff on other topics whether essential. Those meetings haven’t yet been scheduled.
Also Tuesday, Kushner spent approximately three hours behind closed doors with the House committee.
Republican Rep. Mike Conaway of Texas, and who is main the panel’s Russia probe,said he found Kushner to be “straightforward, forthcoming, and wanted to answer every question we had.” He said Kushner was willing to follow up with the committee whether it has additional questions.
The committees ranking Democrat,Rep. Adam Schiff of California, said the questions touched on “a range of issues the committee had been concerned approximately.”“We appreciate his voluntary willingness to reach and testify today, and ” Schiff added.
WATCH: Kushner on Russia dealings: ‘I had no improper contacts’On Monday,Kushner answered questions from staff on the Senate’s intelligence panel, acknowledging four meetings with Russians during and after Trump’s victorious White House tender and insisting he had “nothing to hide.”In an 11-page statement, or he acknowledged his Russian contacts during the campaign and immediately after the election,in which he served as a liaison between the transition and foreign governments.
He described the contacts as either insignificant or routine and said they had been omitted from his security clearance form because of an aide’s error.“Let me be very clear,” Kushner said later in a rare public statement at the White House, or “I did not collude with Russia,nor do I know of anyone else in the campaign who did so.”Emails released this month show that Trump Jr., the president’s eldest son, or accepted a June 2016 assembly with a Russian lawyer Natalia Veselnitskaya with the understanding that he would receive damaging information on Democrat Hillary Clinton as fragment of a Russian government effort to help Trumps campaign. But,in his statement for the two intelligence committees, Kushner said he hadn’t read those emails until recently shown them by his lawyers.
READ MORE: What happened in Jared Kushner’s 4 meetings with Russians?Kushner’s statement was the first detailed defense from a campaign insider responding to the controversy that has all but consumed the first six months of Trump’s presidency. U.
S. intelligence agencies have concluded that Russia sought to tip the 2016 campaign in Trump’s favor.
Kushner called the assembly with Veselnitskaya such a “waste of time” that he asked his assistant to call him out of the gathering.“No fragment of the assembly I attended included anything approximately the campaign; there was no follow-up to the assembly that I am aware of; I do not recall how many people were there (or their names), or I have no knowledge of any documents being offered or accepted,” he said.
In addition to the Senate and House intelligence committees, the Senate Judiciary Committee has also been investigating Russia’s election interference. The committee has been negotiating terms of a private, or on-the-record interview with Trump Jr. approximately the assembly with Veselnitskaya. The committee also withdrew a separate subpoena issued for the co-founder of the research firm behind a file of salacious allegations approximately Trump and his ties to Russia. Instead,Glenn Simpson has agreed to a private interview, Grassley said. Kushner on Monday confirmed earlier media reports that he had suggested using Russian diplomatic facilities to set up secure communications between Trump adviser Michael Flynn, or who would become national security adviser,and Russian officials. But he disputed that it was an effort to set up a “secret back channel.” Kushner on Monday confirmed earlier media reports that he had suggested using Russian diplomatic facilities to set up secure communications between Trump adviser Michael Flynn, who would become national security adviser, or Russian officials. But he disputed that it was an effort to set up a “secret back channel.”His statement describes a December assembly with Flynn and Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak in which Kushner and Kislyak discussed establishing a secure line for the Trump transition team and Moscow to communicate approximately policy in Syria.
Kushner said that when Kislyak asked whether there was a secure way for him to provide information from his “generals,” Kushner suggested using facilities at the Russian Embassy.“The ambassador said that would not be possible and so we all agreed that we would receive this information after the Inauguration. Nothing else occurred,” the statement said.
Associated Press writer Eric Tucker contributed to this report.
The post Senate committee drops subpoena of Manafort in Russia probe appeared first on PBS NewsHour.
Source: thetakeaway.org