Welcome to Rabbit Hole, a breaking-news analysis that helps you get smart on the one story everyone’s obsessing over—for Beast Inside members only.
Donald Trump Jr. might have thought he was done with the Russia investigation, but he isn’t, and he’s got a Republican to blame for it. The GOP-controlled Senate Intelligence Committee would like the president’s son to sit for another round of questioning, prompting Don Jr.’s team to throw down against a prominent Republican senator. So what’s got under the eldest Trump boy’s skin?
Firing fury: Axios got the scoop that the committee wants a second crack at Trump Jr. As it turns out, he’s not real excited about the idea. A source close to Don Jr. told The Daily Beast: “Don is a private citizen, who has already been cleared by Mueller after a two-year investigation. He has done 8-9 hours of testimony in front of Senate Intel already and 27 hours of testimony in front of various committees in total.”
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The prospect of another appearance before the committee has those close to Trump Jr. focusing their ire on the Republican chairman, Richard Burr. “Don continues to cooperate by producing documents and is willing to answer written questions,” the source said, “but no lawyer would ever agree to allow their client to participate in what is an obvious PR stunt from a so-called ‘Republican’ senator too cowardly to stand up to his boss Mark Warner and the rest of the resistance Democrats on the committee.” (Trump Jr.’s attorney did not immediately respond to requests for comment from The Daily Beast.)
How quickly things change: Things weren’t always so testy between Don Jr. and Burr. In March 2018, the president’s son praised the professionalism by committee investigators as being in stark contrast to their counterparts in the House. “At Senate Intel, I was impressed. You know, you walk out of a room after—what was it?—almost 10 hours of interviewing and you didn’t know who was on whose side—meaning those guys actually seemed like they were trying to get the facts,” he told Fox News.
Home-field advantage? He’s not the only one who noticed a difference between the House and Senate investigations. From the very beginning, the Senate Intelligence Committee’s collegial and bipartisan environment made the feuds between the Republican chairman and Democratic ranking member on the House Intelligence Committee look like blood sport. Burr may be accommodating to the Democratic minority in the committee, but despite Don Jr.’s apparent fury, he does look out for the Trump family’s interests.
The Mueller Report contains hints that Burr may have leaked information to the White House about the investigation as it unfolded. In March 2017, then-FBI Director James Comey briefed Senate intelligence committee leadership in Congress about the Russia investigation and gave them a heads-up about who investigators were focusing on. “The week after Comey’s briefing, the White House Counsel’s Office was in contact with SSCI Chairman Senator Richard Burr about the Russia investigations and appears to have received information about the status of the FBI investigation,” the report noted drily.
Throw-down: Trump Jr. has some innovative ideas about what kind of information is privileged. Case in point: When he appeared before the Senate Judiciary Committee, he asserted that a conversation between him and his father was subject to attorney-client privilege because a lawyer had been in the room when it took place.
Senate Republicans let him slide on that argument. It’s not clear that they would again and, having never served in government, he can’t skate on claims of executive privilege. What’s left? According to CNN, at least one source close to Trump Jr. suggests that he may try and invoke his Fifth Amendment rights against self-incrimination to avoid testifying once again.
Hills to die on: Why is a Senate Intelligence Committee appearance such a big deal for Don Jr.? Two explanations suggest themselves:
One, he’s worried about the questions: Mueller concluded his investigation without charging Trump Jr. with any crimes, despite much expectation that an indictment could be a risk for the presidential scion. That appears to put him in the clear of any legal jeopardy. But since Trump Jr. testified before the Senate judiciary and intelligence community a few new things have come to light. Two threads in particular may be uncomfortable for him to talk about, thanks to his father’s former fixer, Michael Cohen. And since his camp is willing to float invoking the Fifth Amendment, that suggests at least a theoretical possibility of criminal jeopardy for the president’s son.
- Trump Tower Moscow: NBC News reported Wednesday that senators would like to run through Don Jr.’s testimony about the Trump Tower Moscow project. Recall that when he appeared before the Judiciary Committee, Trump Jr. said he was only “peripherally aware” of the project’s status. When the Special Counsel’s Office charged Cohen with lying to Congress, it said he had discussed the project well after January 2016 and “briefed family members of [Trump] within the company about the project.” Testifying about what he knew about the Russian real-estate project, when he knew it, and how it squares with his previous testimony could be tricky.
- Trump Tower, New York: When senators asked Trump Jr. whether he spoke to his father about the infamous Trump Tower meeting with a Russian lawyer promising dirt on Hillary Clinton, he told them he hadn’t. That’s not what Cohen told both the Special Counsel’s Office and the House Oversight Committee. Cohen claimed to recall an incident shortly before the meeting where Don Jr. cryptically told his father, “The meeting is all set,” to which Trump responded, “OK, good. Let me know.” Cohen’s claim could be interpreted a number of ways and the Mueller Report didn’t dwell much on it. But House Democrats seem to believe it’s a fruitful enough line of inquiry that they’ve signaled they’d like to subpoena Trump Jr.’s call records to see if they can shed any light on whether Trump Sr. knew about the meeting.
Two, he’s just tired of the questions: Sure, Don Jr. could be worried about having to tell the truth. He could also just be sick of the Russia investigation. Regardless of what you think about what the Mueller Report actually shows, Trump World seems pretty pleased about how it ended, considering the circumstances. Mueller never charged Trump Jr., and the report says no one in the Trump campaign broke the law by colluding with Russia. By his thinking, the Senate Intelligence Committee should let him enjoy a victory lap.
Final mystery: The Trump Jr. subpoena raises another important question: Why is Burr risking the wrath of the White House and fellow Republicans on this? His colleague Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) took to Twitter late Wednesday to voice what many Republicans appear to be thinking, writing that “Burr didn’t get the memo from the Majority Leader that this case was closed…”
That’s unclear. But across the aisle on the House side, Rep. Ted Lieu (D-CA) offered The Daily Beast his own theory: “It tells me that when Republicans actually read the Mueller Report, they are deeply troubled by what’s contained in both Volume 1 and Volume 2. It doesn’t surprise me that both intel committees, on a bipartisan basis, want to find out more."
