Calls Mount For Donald Trump, Jr. To Testify About Russian Contacts

SACRAMENTO (CBS13) — Calls are growing on Capitol Hill for Donald Trump, Jr. to testify before a Senate panel. This, after he admitted to meeting last year with a Russian lawyer who claimed to have damaging information on Hillary Clinton.

Senator Mark Warner (D-Virginia) said, "Donald Trump, Jr. would be someone we would want to talk to."

Warner says members of the Senate Intelligence Committee want to question the president's son about his meeting with a Russian lawyer during last year's presidential election.

"It's remarkable this meeting was not reported beforehand," said Warner.

The meeting, which occurred on June 9, 2016, at Trump Tower, involved Russian lawyer Natalia Veselnitskaya, Trump's son, his brother-in-law Jared Kushner and then-campaign chairman Paul Manafort. Trump Jr. admitted Monday the attorney was offering potential damaging details about Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton, but he says she had no meaningful information to provide. The meeting was reportedly arranged by the musical agent of a Russian pop star, who's billionaire father is connected to Russian President Vladimir Putin.

"The intelligence committee clearly should interview Donald Trump, Jr. as well as everyone who was present at that meeting," said Senator Susan Collins (R-Maine), "That's the only way that we will fully understand what happened."

After first criticizing the media for covering the story, Trump, Jr. tweeted that he would be "happy to work with the committee to pass on what I know."

The meeting came just two weeks after then-candidate Trump clinched the Republican nomination. The White House maintains there was nothing inappropriate about what occurred.

Deputy White House Press Secretary Sara Huckabee Sanders said, "There was simply no collusion that they keep trying to create that there was."

Senator Dick Durbin (D-Illinois) said, "In terms of direct contact between the Russians and the Trump campaign, it's a fact."

Trump Junior has now hired a criminal defense attorney to represent him in connection with the ongoing Russia probes. The White House maintains that President Trump knew nothing of this meeting until just a few days ago.