LEGAL/POLITICAL FIGURES/TRUMP FAMILY/DONALD JR: “Senate Judiciary Chairman Chuck Grassley said Thursday [1-25-18] he wants to release the transcript of the committee’s closed-door interview with Donald Trump Jr., joining Democrats on the committee who have pressed to make it public.
Grassley said he will now move to release all of the panel’s interviews involving the June 2016 Trump Tower meeting between a Russian lawyer and Trump Jr., the President’s son-in-law Jared Kushner and former Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort.
‘Let the public have access to it,’ he said of the transcripts. But Grassley also said the committee has given up in its efforts to speak with Kushner, saying that he would not be testifying before the panel.
Grassley blamed the committee’s top Democrat, Sen. Dianne Feinstein of California, saying her decision to unilaterally release the interview transcript of Fusion GPS co-founder Glenn Simpson had ‘spooked’ any additional witnesses…
Asked why the committee wouldn’t subpoena Kushner, Grassley said the President’s son-in-law has already spoken to a separate committee, the Senate Intelligence Committee. The comment surprised some Democrats given that committees rarely defer key witnesses to other panels.
But with the committee’s Trump Tower interviews wrapped up, Grassley said he would move to release the transcripts ‘as soon as possible.’ Grassley said they will be redacted before they were released, and he was unsure about the timing.
Feinstein responded that she was ‘delighted’ by Grassley’s comments.”
-Manu Raju and Jeremy Herb, “Judiciary chairman plans to release Donald Trump Jr. transcript,” CNN Politics, CNN.com, Jan. 25, 2018 11:54am