GOP-Led Senate Panel Subpoenas Trump Jr. Over Testimony

(Bloomberg) -- The Republican-led Senate Intelligence Committee has subpoenaed Donald Trump Jr., the president’s eldest son, to answer additional questions about his earlier testimony for the panel’s bipartisan Russia probe, according to a person familiar with the matter.

The committee wants him to respond to testimony by Donald Trump’s former fixer, Michael Cohen, on the Trump Tower Moscow project, the person said.

The subpoena marks the first known instance of a Republican-led congressional committee compelling testimony from one of Trump’s children, potentially setting up a battle between a fiercely protective father and his overseers in Congress.

The move surfaced a day after Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said the Russia probe was “case closed” with the release of Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s report.

But Democrats have been pushing to get more information on his investigation, saying many questions remain unanswered. The House Judiciary Committee voted Wednesday to hold Attorney General William Barr in contempt over his refusal to hand over the full unredacted version of Mueller’s report.

The Senate Intelligence Committee said it doesn’t discuss its interactions with witnesses, but that it has the authority to recall witnesses as needed.

Under Chairman Richard Burr of North Carolina, the Senate Intelligence panel has been conducting the only bipartisan probe, and one that’s lasted even longer than Mueller’s. He’s previously said that it had yet to find any collusion between Trump’s 2016 campaign and Russian operatives, although senators acknowledged Mueller had access to witnesses and evidence that they did not.

The proposed tower in Moscow was the brainchild of Cohen and Felix Sater, a former Trump associate who chased property deals for the future president. The pair pursued a potential tower in Moscow well into the 2016 presidential campaign -- Cohen has said he regularly briefed members of the Trump family of their progress -- but nothing came of it.

The abandoned tower project has become a flashpoint in Democrats’ struggle to understand Trump’s involvement with Russian-linked entities in the wake of the Russian government’s attempt to tilt the 2016 election in Trump’s favor. Trump has denied having business interests in Russia and defended his right to pursue business in the country.

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