Top White House adviser and Trump son-in-law Jared Kushner will testify before the Senate Intelligence Committee Monday, July 24th, in a closed-door hearing, Kushner’s lawyer confirmed Wednesday. The Intel committee, charged with investigating of Russian election meddling that has broadened to include Trump-Russia links, has also scheduled voluntary appearances in a public session next Wednesday for Donald Trump Jr. and former Trump campaign chief Paul Manafort although their appearances are not yet confirmed. Manafort and Trump Jr. have stated previously they would cooperate with the investigation and appear before the committee.
All three Trump advisers were present at the June 2016 meeting at Trump Tower with Russian attorney Natalia Veselnitskaya arranged explicitly to pass along potentially damaging information about Hillary Clinton gathered by the Russian government as part of its effort to tilt the election towards Trump. The meeting was first publicly known earlier this month when the New York Times reported on the high-level encounter that smacked of collusion. The various investigations began focusing on Trump’s son-in-law months ago, when it was learned that Kushner met with a cast of high-profile Russians during the Trump transition in December, but initially failed to disclose the meetings in his national security clearance form. At the meeting were Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak and banker Sergey Gorkov who is the head of the Russian government-owned bank that’s been under U.S.-sanction since July 2014, Vnesheconombank.
This is the closest the now months-long investigation has come to Trump and the first time key members of the campaign and the president’s inner circle will be asked questions under oath. “Earlier this week, Sen. Dianne Feinstein, the top Democrat on the Senate judiciary committee, said that Justice Department Special Counsel Robert Mueller had signed off on the committee’s request to interview Manafort and Trump Jr. in public,” according to CNN.
