Senate Intelligence Committee "absolutely" hopes to speak with Trump Jr., Manafort, Kushner
Vice Chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee Mark Warner, D-Virginia, said Monday that the public has now seen "clear evidence" of the Trump campaign meeting with Russian officials in an attempt to meddle with the 2016 U.S. presidential election.
"The public has seen clear evidence of at least an attempt by the Trump campaign to obtain information," Warner said referencing news of a meeting in which Donald Trump Jr. was promised information from a lawyer connected to the Kremlin. "And again, in this case, from a possible foreign agent that would interfere with the Hillary Clinton campaign efforts."
CBS News has confirmed that President Trump's eldest son and his son-in-law Jared Kushner met with Russian lawyer Natalia Veselnitskaya at Trump Tower to obtain information that would help Mr. Trump's campaign for the presidency in June 2016, two weeks before Mr. Trump secured the Republican nomination for president.
Warner did not reveal whether the Senate Intelligence Committee had already known about the meeting, but did say that the committee "absolutely" hopes to speak with Donald Trump Jr., Paul Manafort and Jared Kushner.
"These individuals constantly have to recant," Warner said.
When asked about the possibility of potential collusion charges against the Trump campaign, the senator said that he would leave the question up to the Special Counsel Robert Mueller, who is investigating the possibility of Russian interference in the 2016 election, but added that he believes it is "remarkable" that the meeting was not reported beforehand.
Warner also described the evidence as a continuing pattern of Trump officials' "conveniently forgotten meetings with Russians."
"We expect much more to come," Warner said.