Hearing to come less than two weeks after revelations of meeting with Kremlin-linked lawyer alongside Jared Kushner, who will testify in separate closed session

Donald Trump Jr, along with the former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort, are scheduled to testify publicly before Congress on 26 July.



In a hearing entitled Oversight of the Foreign Agents Registration Act and Attempts to Influence US Elections: Lessons Learned from Current and Prior Administrations, the president’s eldest son and his former top campaign aide will appear before the Senate judiciary committee as further scrutiny mounts of the Trump campaign’s connections to Russia.

A spokesman for Manafort told the Guardian: “We just received the letter and we’re reviewing it. We have nothing else to add.” A spokesman for Trump Jr did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Profile Donald Trump Jr Show Hide Born 31 December 1977 in Manhattan 31 December 1977 in Manhattan Career After brief stint bartending in Aspen, he moved back to New York to join the Trump Organization, supervising Trump Park Avenue and other projects. He took an interest in other family enterprises in later years, appearing as a guest adviser on his father’s reality television show The Apprentice and as a judge of various Miss USA pageants. After brief stint bartending in Aspen, he moved back to New York to join the Trump Organization, supervising Trump Park Avenue and other projects. He took an interest in other family enterprises in later years, appearing as a guest adviser on his father’s reality television show The Apprentice and as a judge of various Miss USA pageants. High point Just before the news of his meeting with the Russian lawyer Natalia Veselnitskaya, he was riding high as executive director of The Trump Organization and one of the president’s closest confidants. Just before the news of his meeting with the Russian lawyer Natalia Veselnitskaya, he was riding high as executive director of The Trump Organization and one of the president’s closest confidants. Low point On Tuesday 11 July 2017, he produced the most damning evidence yet in the FBI’s investigation of Russian meddling in the US election, catapulting himself on to the international stage with emails showing he knowingly met with a Russian lawyer claiming to have “dirt” on his father’s rival. On Tuesday 11 July 2017, he produced the most damning evidence yet in the FBI’s investigation of Russian meddling in the US election, catapulting himself on to the international stage with emails showing he knowingly met with a Russian lawyer claiming to have “dirt” on his father’s rival. He says “I think I probably got a lot of my father’s natural security, or ego, or whatever … I can be my own person and not have to live under his shadow. I definitely look up to him in many ways – I’d like to be more like him when it comes to business – but I think I’m such a different person, it’s hard to even compare us. His work persona is kind of what he is. I have a work face, and then there’s my private life,” – Trump Jr to New York magazine, 2004. “I think I probably got a lot of my father’s natural security, or ego, or whatever … I can be my own person and not have to live under his shadow. I definitely look up to him in many ways – I’d like to be more like him when it comes to business – but I think I’m such a different person, it’s hard to even compare us. His work persona is kind of what he is. I have a work face, and then there’s my private life,” – Trump Jr to New York magazine, 2004. They say “It’s a do-anything-you-can-to-win world that he’s part of, and his eagerness to meet with this lawyer, who was very explicitly described as having information that came from Russian government sources – there’s no mystery there. There’s no veil. There’s not even one veil. Her name wasn’t mentioned but everything else was very explicit and he leaps at it. That’s all part of this all-that-matters-is-winning, there’s winning and there’s losing, that’s it. That’s the value system and in that way, he very much echoes his father.” – Gwenda Blair, Trump biographer, to the Guardian, 12 July 2017. “It’s a do-anything-you-can-to-win world that he’s part of, and his eagerness to meet with this lawyer, who was very explicitly described as having information that came from Russian government sources – there’s no mystery there. There’s no veil. There’s not even one veil. Her name wasn’t mentioned but everything else was very explicit and he leaps at it. That’s all part of this all-that-matters-is-winning, there’s winning and there’s losing, that’s it. That’s the value system and in that way, he very much echoes his father.” – Gwenda Blair, Trump biographer, to the Guardian, 12 July 2017.

Their testimony comes less than two weeks after it was revealed that the two, along with Jared Kushner, a top White House aide and Trump’s son-in-law, met with a Kremlin-linked lawyer in 2016 who offered Trump Jr negative information about Hillary Clinton. Kushner is expected to testify in a closed session before the Senate intelligence committee on 24 July.

In an email thread published between Trump Jr and Rob Goldstone, the publicist for a Russian oligarch, the president’s son was told: “The crown prosecutor of Russia … offered to provide the Trump campaign with some official documents and information that would incriminate Hillary and her dealings with Russia and would be very useful to your father.

“This is obviously very high-level and sensitive information but is part of Russia and its government’s support for Mr Trump.”

Trump Jr responded: “If it’s what you say, I love it, especially later in the summer.”

He then forwarded the email thread to Kushner and Manafort, who attended the meeting. Kushner, who is a White House official, did not disclose the meeting as required on security clearance forms until recent weeks, raising questions about whether he should keep his security clearance.

Democrat Brian Schatz of Hawaii told the Guardian last week that Kushner “probably” needs to lose his clearance. When asked if he should lose his White House position altogether, Schatz said: “That’s the decision that the president gets to make, but let me put it this way: if he were not related by marriage to the president, I think he’d be already gone.”

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Manafort has long been under scrutiny for his ties to Russia. A veteran Republican political operative, he has extensive experience working in the former Soviet Union and was a longtime aide to the former Ukrainian president Viktor Yanukovych. As a result of Manafort’s work, he recently filed a belated registration as a foreign agent for $17m in political consulting fees that his firm received for advising Yanukovych’s pro-Russian political party from 2012 to 2014.

In addition to Trump Jr and Manafort, the open hearing before the Senate judiciary committee is scheduled to include testimony from Glenn Simpson, the head of research for the firm Fusion GPS, and Bill Browder, an investor who has long been active in pushing for increased sanctions on Russia. Simpson’s firm produced the infamous Steele dossier on Trump’s contacts with Russia, which was first published in January.