Donald Trump Jr. Demands Leak Probe of House Intelligence Committee

Photo

Donald Trump Jr., the president’s eldest son, has asked the House Intelligence Committee to open an investigation into leaked information related to his closed interview with the committee last week.

“To maintain the credibility of the investigation, this committee should determine whether any member or staff member violated the rules by leaking information to the media concerning the interview or by purposely providing inaccurate information which led to significant misreporting,” Alan S. Futerfas, Mr. Trump’s lawyer, wrote in a letter on Tuesday to Representative K. Michael Conaway, the Texas Republican who is leading the investigation into Russian efforts to interfere with the 2016 election.

A copy of the letter was obtained by The New York Times.

Mr. Futerfas said that he and Mr. Trump had been informed before the interview that its contents “would be kept strictly confidential and not discussed publicly unless and until the full committee voted to release the transcript.”

But while the interview was underway and after it was completed, he said, accounts of what Mr. Trump had said in private began appearing in media reports.

Mr. Futerfas cited public appearances by the committee’s top Democrat, Representative Adam Schiff of California, as well as television interviews with Representatives Jackie Speier and Eric Swalwell, both California Democrats. Mr. Futerfas said the Democrats selectively presented details from the closed-door questioning of Mr. Trump “in an attempt to discredit my client.”

In addition, his letter charges that members of the House committee “began disseminating wildly inaccurate information” to reporters that formed the basis of an erroneous CNN report on an email that Mr. Trump and other members of the Trump campaign received in September 2016.

The New York Times and numerous other outlets reported on Mr. Schiff’s remarks, which were made public after the all-day session concluded. Mr. Schiff said that Mr. Trump had declined to provide the committee details of a July telephone conversation with his father about a 2016 meeting at which Trump campaign officials had expected to receive damaging information from the Russian government about Hillary Clinton.

Mr. Conaway was not immediately able to be reached for comment.