A Democratic senator barely stopped short of yelling ‘pants on fire’ at Donald Trump Jr. on Thursday, moments after the president’s eldest son finished a private grilling with Senate Judiciary Committee staff.
Trump Jr. offered his testimony about a June 9, 2016 meeting that included a Russian lawyer – an event that Democrats have seized on as evidence of election-year collusion between Trumpworld and the Kremlin.
As Don Jr. left Washington for New York, Democratic Sen. Chris Coons of Delaware threw a not-so-subtle jab by circulating an email containing the text of a federal law that criminalizes lying to Congress.
Coons did not provide any evidence that Trump Jr. had said anything untrue during the lengthy interview, which had been scheduled and rescheduled over a period of weeks.
‘Below is a statute to keep in mind in regards to Donald Trump Jr.’s testimony today,’ Coons wrote. He is a member of the judiciary committee. His email went to ‘interested parties,’ including a long list of reporters.
Chris Coons, a Democratic senator from Delaware, stopped barely short of screaming ‘pants on fire’ at Donald Trump Jr. on Thursday
Coons blasted out this broadside at Trump Jr. shortly after he finished speaking with Judiciary Committee staffers in a closed-door session
President Trump’s oldest son told the Senate panel on Thursday that he attended a meeting last year which included a Russian lawyer because he hoped it would yield information about Democrat Hillary Clinton’s ‘fitness, character or qualifications’ to be president
‘It is important to remember that anyone who testifies in front of a Senate committee is under the restrictions of the False Statements statute that says material false statements to Congress are criminal and punishable with fines or imprisonment or both,’ Coons said in his statement.
A source close to Trump Jr. told DailyMail.com that the interview went on for 5 hours without a lunch break, and both sides agreed at the end that they had no additional questions.
Nothing was considered off-limits, the source said, despite the Judiciary Committee having a limited scope.
‘They spent 45 minutes going through a list of Russian names Don Jr. had never heard of,’ the source added, saying that Democratic committee aides spend a ‘huge’ amout of time exploring ‘pointless’ details of ‘a 20-minute meeting that no one remembers.’
Trump Jr. was gracious in the aftermath of his sit-down with Senate aides.
‘I very much appreciate the opportunity to assist the Committee in its efforts. I thank Chairman Grassley and Ranking Member Feinstein, as well as other members of the Committee and their staff for their courtesy and professionalism.’
A Trump Organization spokesperson did not respond to a request on Friday for an additional statement in response to Coons’ thinly veiled broadside.
But Trump Jr. said on Thursday that he had ‘answered every question posed by the Committee related to this topic, as well as all of their questions on other topics, until both sides had exhausted their lines of questioning.’
‘I trust this interview fully satisfied their inquiry,’ he added.
The statute outlined in Coons’ passive-aggressive email is 18 U.S.C. 1001(a) & (c)(2), which outlines the punishments for lying to Congress.
It carries a 5-year federal prison sentence, which can be increased to 8 years if a lie concerns terrorism or a list of other topics.
The 2016 meeting that has become a focal point for attacking Democrats included publicist Rob Goldstone, Russian-Azerbaijani singer-songwriter Emin Agalarov, Russian attorney Natalia Veselnitskaya, then-Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort and Jared Kushner, the future president’s son-in-law.
Trump Jr. said after his grilling that he was ‘thankful’ for the Senate Judiciary Committee staff’s ‘professionalism and courtesy’
A Senate source told DailyMail.com on Friday that Trump Jr. insisted Thursday to committee staff that he never introduced the meeting’s Russian participants to his father, the future president.
The president’s son said he attended the meeting because he hoped it would yield information about Democrat Hillary Clinton’s suitability to be president.
In an email, Trump recalled, Goldstone ‘suggested that someone had ‘official documents and information that would incriminate Hillary [Clinton] and her dealings with Russia’ and that the information would be ‘very useful’ to the campaign.’
‘To the extent they had information concerning the fitness, character, or qualifications of a presidential candidate, I believed that I should at least hear them out,’ Trump Jr. said.
‘Depending on what, if any, information they had, I could then consult with counsel to make an informed decision as to whether to give it further consideration.’
‘I was somewhat skeptical of his outreach,’ he added on Thursday, since he knew Goldstone only as a pop music promoter.
‘As it later turned out, my skepticism was justified. The meeting provided no meaningful information and turned out not to be about what had been represented.’