The Senate Judiciary Committee has issued a subpoena to get former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort to testify about Russian efforts to influence the 2016 election, the committee’s top members said Tuesday.
Panel chairman Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, and ranking member Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., said they issued the subpoena on Monday night, seeking Manafort’s appearance at a hearing Wednesday. In their statement, Grassley and Feinstein said that Manafort’s attorney “said that he would be willing to provide only a single transcribed interview to Congress, which would not be available to the Judiciary Committee members or staff.”
“While the Judiciary Committee was willing to cooperate on equal terms with any other committee to accommodate Mr. Manafort’s request, ultimately that was not possible. Therefore, yesterday evening, a subpoena was issued to compel Mr. Manafort’s participation in Wednesday’s hearing,” the senators said.
They added that they “may be willing to excuse” Manafort from a hearing if he agrees to provide documents and a transcribed interview.
The Judiciary Committee has sought Manafort’s testimony about a meeting he attended with Russian nationals last year at Trump Tower during the heat of the 2016 presidential election. The meeting was set up after Donald Trump Jr., the president’s eldest son, was offered compromising information as part of Russia and its government’s support for his father’s campaign, according to emails that the younger Trump released.
The panel had requested that both Manafort and Trump Jr. appear publicly Wednesday.
The president and his campaign officials have insisted that nothing improper took place at the meeting and that it did not yield useful information. The president has also denied knowing about the meeting until recently.