According to the Los Angeles Times, bipartisan members of the Senate Intelligence Committee called for investigation into members of President Donald Trump's family and campaign, alleging that their testimony to former special counsel Robert Mueller contradicted the information provided by deputy campaign chairman Rick Gates.
"The letter, a copy of which was reviewed by The Times, was signed by the panel’s then-chairman, Republican Sen. Richard M. Burr, and its ranking Democrat, Sen. Mark Warner," reported Del Quentin Wilber, Chris Megerian, Sarah Wire, and Jennifer Haberkorn. "It also raised concerns about testimony provided by family members and confidants of President Trump that appeared to contradict information provided by a former deputy campaign chairman to Special Counsel Robert S. Mueller III. Those it identified as providing such conflicting testimony were the president’s son Donald Trump Jr., his son-in-law Jared Kushner, former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort and former White House Communications Director Hope Hicks."
This letter originally was sent in July 2019, but only recently became available to reporters.
"The committee raised concerns that testimony given to it by the president’s family and advisors contradicted what Rick Gates, the former deputy campaign chairman, told the Special Counsel about when people within the Trump campaign knew about a June 9 meeting at Trump tower with a Russian lawyer," said the report. "When the meeting became public, Trump Jr. initially claimed it was about Russian adoptions, but emails written by Trump Jr. that were later made public showed he had agreed to the meeting, but because he had been assured that the Russian lawyer had 'official documents and information' that would 'incriminate' Clinton, the Democratic candidate for president. The email said the information would 'be very useful to your father.'"
"Gates told the special prosecutor that in the days before the June 9, 2016, meeting, Trump Jr. announced at a 'regular morning meeting of senior campaign staff and Trump family members that he had a lead on negative information about the Clinton Foundation,' according to the report of the investigation’s findings," continued the Times. "Trump Jr., Kushner, Hicks and Manafort denied prior knowledge of the meeting in interviews with the committee, according to the committee’s letter, which offered transcripts as proof."
Burr has subsequently stepped down from the Intelligence Committee amid a scandal over his stock trades while receiving classified coronavirus briefings. He has maintained he did nothing wrong.