Democrat says Trump Jr. may have lied to Senate committee

WASHINGTON – A Democratic senator said Thursday he’s concerned that President Donald Trump’s eldest son may have lied to Congress about his knowledge of foreign assistance offered to the Trump campaign.

Sen. Chris Coons of Delaware cited Donald Trump Jr.’s testimony on Sept. 7 to the Senate Judiciary Committee. In a letter to the committee’s chairman, Sen. Charles Grassley of Iowa, Coons urged Grassley to call back Trump Jr. for an open hearing. He noted that making false statements to Congress has criminal penalties.

“I am writing to you because I am deeply concerned that, based on new information we learned this week, Donald Trump Jr. provided false testimony,” he wrote.

The issue concerned questions that prompted Trump Jr. to say that no foreign governments or nationals had offered or given assistance to his father’s campaign.

Last week, Trump lawyer Alan Futerfas said his client met during the 2016 campaign with private military contractor Erik Prince and an adviser to Middle Eastern leaders, George Nader. Prince and Nader, who have become a focus of investigators working for special counsel Robert Mueller, pitched a social media platform. The meeting also included Joel Zamel, the CEO of a social media company called WikiStrat, who Coons says is “linked to Israeli intelligence and the Emirati royal court.”

The New York Times, which first reported the August 2016 meeting, said it was convened primarily to offer assistance to the Trump campaign.