Trump Jr. asks for probe into leaks of interview with House panel

An attorney for Donald Trump Jr. is asking the House Intelligence Committee to investigate leaks of Trump Jr.’s interview with the panel last week, according to a new report.

The letter sent Tuesday to Rep. Mike Conaway (R-Texas), who has been leading the panel’s Russia probe, accuses members of the committee of “selectively leaking information provided during the interview to various press outlets, most notably CNN,” New York Magazine reported.

Conaway took over the committee’s investigation into Russian meddling in the 2016 election after chairman Rep. Devin Nunes (R-Calif.) recused himself earlier this year.

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The letter claims that members of the panel leaked information while the interview was ongoing. Trump Jr.’s lawyer Alan Futerfas cited tweets from CNN reporter Manu Raju sent out at 1:01 p.m. and 4:29 p.m., as well as a CNN story published at 6:25 p.m., as evidence of leaking.

Trump Jr. met voluntarily last week with the House Intelligence Committee for an eight-hour interview that focused on his contacts with Russians. The interview lasted from about 10 a.m. until 5:50 p.m., Futerfas said.

CNN reported that the president’s eldest son testified that he did not directly speak with his father about his initial statement following the June 2016 meeting in Trump Tower with Russian lawyer Natalia Veselnitskaya.

He instead spoke with White House communications director Hope Hicks, who then spoke to President Trump, according to CNN. 

Trump Jr. also refused to go into detail about his conversation with his father about the meeting, citing attorney-client privilege, because a lawyer was in the room at the time.

The House Intelligence Committee is one of multiple congressional panels investigating possible Russian interference in the 2016 election. Trump Jr. previously spoke with members of the Senate Judiciary Committee.