WASHINGTON – The eldest son of former American president Donald Trump has met with the congressional committee investigating the 2021 assault on the Capitol, United States media reported yesterday, citing unnamed sources.
Donald Trump Jr. was a top figure in his father’s 2020 re-election campaign and one of the most high-profile spreaders of the defeated leader’s false claims of widespread election fraud.
He was with Trump in the Oval Office before the president’s speech at the January 6, 2021 “Stop the Steal” rally that inflamed a mob that laid siege to the Capitol as lawmakers were certifying Joe Biden’s victory.
The interview, conducted without a subpoena on Tuesday, was held via video link over around three hours and was cordial, a source told CNN, adding that Trump Jr. answered every question and did not assert his Fifth Amendment right to silence.
Trump Jr. texted then-White House chief of staff Mark Meadows two days after the election, when the result was still to be determined, with a plan to prevent Biden from being certified as the next president.
The committee has also highlighted a message from the 44-year-old Republican telling Meadows as the insurrection was underway that the then-president had to forcefully condemn the violence.
The committee has already spoken to several figures in Trump’s inner circle, including his daughter Ivanka, her husband and top Trump aide Jared Kushner, and Trump Jr.’s partner Kimberly Guilfoyle.
Its seven Democrats and two Republicans plan to hold a series of public hearings in June before releasing a report in the fall on the insurrection and its relation to attempts by Trump and his allies to overturn the election.
Trump Jr.’s representatives and the committee did not immediately respond to requests for comment. – AFP, May 5, 2022
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