WASHINGTON — Donald Trump Jr., the president’s eldest son, is seeking an investigation into leaks related to his interview last week with a congressional panel probing Russian efforts to meddle in the 2016 election.
Details of his eight-hour session with the House Intelligence Committee on Dec. 6 were leaked during and after the interview, despite assurances that his comments, which were under oath, would be kept confidential, Trump’s lawyer Alan Futerfas said in a letter to Rep. Michael Conaway, who is leading the committee’s Russia investigation. Futerfas said the leaks undermined the committee and “warrant examination.”
Several hours into the interview, CNN reported that Trump said that he had spoken with White House communications director Hope Hicks about his response to reporters’ questions about a 2016 meeting at Trump Tower with a Russian lawyer. Later that evening, Democratic members of the committee appeared on television discussing the details of Trump’s interview.
Days later, an email Trump had turned over to the committee was leaked with the wrong date, leading to an inaccurate CNN report suggesting Trump knew about hacked emails before they were released publicly by WikiLeaks.
Trump had been assured prior to the interview that the House Intelligence Committee would keep it confidential unless the full committee voted to release the transcript, Futerfas said in the letter.
