Top Dem lawmaker pushing committee for closed-door debrief with Trump’s interpreter

A senior Democratic lawmaker intends to ask the House Foreign Affairs Committee chairman to hold a closed-door debriefing with President Trump’s Russia interpreter.

Rep. Brad Sherman (D-Calif.) joins other Democrats in pressing for information from the interpreter who participated in a two hour private meeting between Trump and Russian leader Vladimir Putin.

Sherman, the ranking member on the Asia & the Pacific Foreign Affairs Subcommittee, told Hill.TV that he hasn’t spoken to Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Ed Royce (R-Calif.) about scheduling a debrief, “but I will.”

Several Democrats, including Rep. Joe Kennedy (D-Mass.), Rep. Bill Pascrell (D-N.J.) and Sen. Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.), have called for hearings with the interpreter to get a debrief of what happened between the two world leaders on Monday in Helsinki.

“I think it should be the Foreign Affairs Committee … in closed session,” Sherman told Hill.TV when asked if Trump’s translator should testify on Capitol Hill.

– Molly K. Hooper