WASHINGTON _ Donald Trump Jr. appeared Wednesday for a closed-door interview with the Senate Intelligence Committee, telling reporters that he wasn't changing his previous testimony.
"No, nothing to correct," the president's son said. Senators have indicated they wanted to clear up what they considered discrepancies between his answers and the testimony of others in the panel's long-running, bipartisan investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election.
Among the questions Trump Jr. apparently faced was how to square his testimony about his knowledge of the secret pursuit of a Trump Tower development in Moscow during the 2016 presidential campaign with that of Michael Cohen, President Donald Trump's former personal lawyer and fixer.
Cohen initially testified that the pursuit ended in January 2016. But he later pleaded guilty to lying to the Senate panel, acknowledging that the effort to make the deal continued for months longer, well into Trump's presidential campaign. Cohen, who's now serving a prison term, also testified that he briefed Trump Jr. on the project.
After almost three hours with the Intelligence panel on Wednesday, Trump Jr. said that if clarification was needed because of Cohen, "let's not forget" that he's the one "serving time for lying" to the committee.
"I'm glad that this is finally over," he added.
Richard Burr, the chairman of the committee, had faced pressure from Trump Jr.'s allies to drop a subpoena for his testimony and refused.
But the North Carolina Republican is protecting Trump Jr. in one respect: He reaffirmed Wednesday that he doesn't plan to hold any more public hearings in the investigation nor to release committee transcripts beyond what may be quoted in his final report.
