Trump Jr. tells lawmakers he can't discuss conversation he had with his father
During his lengthy interview with the House Intelligence Committee on Wednesday, Donald Trump Jr. told the panel he couldn't discuss a conversation he had with his father this summer because of attorney-client privilege. The Trumps are not attorneys, nor are they each other's client.
Rep. Adam Schiff (Calif.), the committee's top Democrat, said that Trump Jr. claimed there was a lawyer in the room during their discussion, so the argument counts. "I don't believe you can shield communications between individuals merely by having an attorney present," Schiff said. "That's not the purpose of attorney-client privilege."
The conversation in question came after The New York Times contacted Trump Jr. about a 2016 meeting Trump Jr. had with several Russians, including a Kremlin-linked attorney, before the election. Trump Jr.'s initial statement, which President Trump reportedly had a hand in drafting, described the meeting as being short and solely about the adoption of Russian children by Americans; it was later revealed Trump Jr. agreed to the meeting because he was promised compromising information on Hillary Clinton by the Russian government, and he was joined by former campaign chairman Paul Manafort and his brother-in-law and Trump adviser, Jared Kushner.
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Catherine Garcia is night editor for TheWeek.com. Her writing and reporting has appeared in Entertainment Weekly and EW.com, The New York Times, The Book of Jezebel, and other publications. A Southern California native, Catherine is a graduate of the University of Redlands and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.
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