President Donald Trump said that he was surprised that the Senate Intelligence Committee issued a subpoena for his son, Donald Trump Jr.
Asked about the subpoena during a press conference on May 9, the day after it was issued, Trump said, “I was very surprised.”
Sen. Richard Burr (R-N.C.) is chairman of the committee.
“I saw Burr saying there was no collusion two or three weeks ago. I was very surprised to see my son—my son is a good person, he works hard. The last thing he needs is Washington, D.C. He’d rather not be involved,” Trump added, according to the conservative Fox News website.
“My son is a good person. He testified for hours and hours. My son was totally exonerated by Mueller who doesn’t like Trump, me. And for my son, after being exonerated to now get a subpoena to speak again after telling everyone about a nothing meeting, I’m pretty surprised.”
Asked if he would block his son from complying with the subpoena, Trump added, “We’ll see what happens.”
Trump Jr. testified before the committee in 2017 and testified multiple other times before Congress.
When Trump Jr. testified before the panel in 2017, it was agreed that he would only have to appear once, as long as he stayed as long as necessary, which he did, a source told The Epoch Times.
“Don continues to cooperate by producing documents and is willing to answer written questions, but no lawyer would ever agree to have their client participate in what is an obvious PR stunt from a so-called Republican senator to cowardly stand up to his boss Mark Warner and the rest of the resistance Democrats on the committee,” the source said.
The committee is still investigating Russian interference in the 2016 election even after special counsel Robert Mueller spent around two years and tens of millions of dollars on his own probe, concluding that several groups of Russians interfered in the election but that no Americans conspired or cooperated with them.
Two months before Mueller submitted his report, the Senate Intelligence Committee concluded that there was no evidence of collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia.
Top Republicans criticized the committee’s decision to subpoena Trump Jr.
“[Donald Trump Jr.] has already spent dozens of hours testifying in front of congressional committees. Endless investigations—by either party—won’t change the fact that there was NO collusion. It’s time to move on. It’s time to focus on ISSUES, not investigations,” House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) wrote on Twitter.
“Apparently the Republican chair of the Senate Intel Committee didn’t get the memo from the majority leader that this case was closed,” Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) added on Twitter.
Trump on Thursday also criticized top Democrats, including House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerrold Nadler (D-N.Y.) and House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff (D-Calif.), reported Fox.
“Now, guys like Nadler, who I fought for years successfully in New York … now I have to beat him again. Over nothing. Over a hoax. They know it’s a hoax. Nadler is a smart guy. Schiff is a smart guy,” he said.
“But when Schiff goes to the microphone, he’s conning this whole country, and he knows this, and after, he goes back into a room and talks to his friends and he laughs.”
Trump also said that he would leave whether Mueller would be allowed to testify to Congress up to Attorney General William Barr.
