"We’ve still got some preliminary work to work through, and then we will make a decision, " Sen. Richard Burr said. | J. Scott Applewhite/AP Photo Burr: Still weighing public hearing with Donald Trump Jr.

Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Richard Burr (R-N.C.) said Tuesday that he is still deciding whether to hold a public hearing with Donald Trump Jr. as part of the panel’s probe into whether any associates of the president colluded with Russians in the 2016 election.

“We’ve still got some preliminary work to work through, and then we will make a decision as to whether we invite him in for an interview or for a public hearing,” Burr told POLITICO.


Hearing from President Donald Trump’s eldest son took on new importance Monday after Trump Jr. confirmed that he had traded online messages with Wikileaks in the run-up to the 2016 election.

After a report on the exchanges in The Atlantic, Trump Jr. tweeted his correspondence with Wikileaks, which U.S. intelligence officials say acted on Moscow’s behalf by releasing hacked emails last year, and accused “one of the congressional committees” of leaking the information.

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The intelligence committee’s Democratic vice chairman, Virginia Sen. Mark Warner, suggested on Sunday that he would prefer a public hearing with Trump Jr. Given that the president’s eldest son is not serving in government, Warner told MSNBC, lawmakers should “give folks a chance to hear his side of the story.”

