Donald Trump Jr., the presidents 39-year-old son, told a U.S. Senate panel that he didnt recall discussing a 2016 meeting with Russians at Trump Tower in New York with his father, according to testimony released Wednesday. The Senate Judiciary Committee made public over 1,800 pages of transcripts of interview with Trump Jr. and several others who attended the meeting on June 9, 2016, at which they expected to receive damaging information about Trumps opponent, Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton. During a closed-door interview with the Senate panel last September, Trump Jr. said that he couldnt recall whether he spoke with his father on the day the meeting was arranged. Obviously hes aware of it now because hes read it, its been in the papers, but thats the extent of my knowledge of his knowledge of it, Trump Jr. told the committee, adding that then he did not think it would be a problem to take a meeting for information relevant to the fitness and character of a presidential candidate. But the meeting ultimately ended up being about the adoption of Russian children by American couples, which Moscow blocked in response to Washingtons sanctions passed by U.S. lawmakers in the Magnitsky Act. The meeting provided no meaningful information and turned out to be not about what was represented, Trump Jr. said in his testimony. He also said that he did not know if his father was involved in the drafting of a controversial statement about the meeting, which was released in July, 2017. Critics have called the statement misleading. I never spoke to my father about it, said Trump Jr., insisting that his statements were all very consistent with each other. Following the release of the testimony, Trump Jr. said Wednesday that the transcripts show that he cooperated with the committees investigation, while the records indicate that he deflected multiple questions during the interview. In addition to the presidents son, the Senate panel also interviewed four others attending the infamous meeting -- publicist Rob Goldstone, who brokered the meeting; Rinat Akhmetshin, a Russian-American lobbyist; Ike Kaveladze, a business associate of a Moscow-based developer, and an interpreter. The committee did not interview Natalia Veselnitskaya, Jared Kushner, Trumps son-in-law, or Paul Manafort, Trumps former campaign manager, who all attended the meeting, but it released Veselnitskayas written statement to the panels chair and one page of notes that Manafort took during the meeting. The meeting is a focus of investigators, including special counsel Robert Muellers team, who are probing alleged Russian meddling in the 2016 presidential election, possible links to the Trump campaign and other allegations. Mueller, who was appointed a year ago, has brought several unrelated charges against Manafort, including false statements and money-laundering conspiracy. Over a dozen others were also charged. The Senate Intelligence Committee said Wednesday that it agrees with the intelligence communitys assessment in 2017 that Russia intervened in the 2016 presidential election to help Trump while hurting Clintons candidacy. Russia has denied any interference. Trump has repeatedly denied allegations of collusion between his campaign and the Russians, describing the Russia probe as a hoax or a witch hunt.
