MANDEL NGAN/AFP/Getty Images(WASHINGTON) — The president’s eldest son and namesake is expected to return to Capitol Hill on Wednesday morning for testimony before the Senate Intelligence Committee, sources familiar with the matter told ABC News.
In May, Donald Trump Jr. agreed to appear before the panel for a closed session, limited in scope and time after the Republican-led committee issued a subpoena for his testimony.
Wednesday’s hearing will mark the fourth time lawmakers have summoned Trump Jr. to the Hill since his father took office and the second time he’s sat before the Senate Intelligence Committee, with whom he met for more than nine hours in December 2017.
In the wake of special counsel Robert Mueller’s now-closed investigation, several congressional panels are marching forward with their own probes into Russian meddling during the 2016 campaign.
While the nature of the Senate Intelligence Committee’s request for Trump Jr.’s testimony remains unknown, the decision by its Republican chairman, Sen. Richard Burr, to subpoena the president’s son was met with sharp criticism from conservatives in the upper chamber.
Last month, Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., went so far as to suggest that Trump Jr. ought to ignore the subpoena.
“If I were his lawyer, I wouldn’t put him back into this circus. The freak show in the House — I’m not going to let it come to the Senate,” Graham told ABC News in May. “We gave Mueller two years and [35] million dollars — it’s over for me.”
A source close to Trump Jr. said last month that he is “incredibly appreciative to the members that went to bat for him and he will return the favor come the 2020 campaign.”
Responding to reports of the subpoena last month, President Donald Trump said he was “surprised” by the move.
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