Story highlights Sen. Grassley pushed back against allegations Trump Jr. may have lied

Sen. Coons said Trump Jr. may have lied about foreign campaign contacts

(CNN) Senate Judiciary Chairman Chuck Grassley on Tuesday pushed back against a Democrat who has accused Donald Trump Jr. of potentially lying in his testimony to the committee, and suggested a different witness may have lied to the panel instead.

Grassley, an Iowa Republican, sent a letter to Sen. Chris Coons on Tuesday responding to the Delaware Democrat's letter last week , which charged that President Donald Trump's eldest son may have "provided false testimony" to the committee and urged Grassley to bring Trump Jr. back to the committee to testify publicly.

Coons suggested Trump lied in his September 2017 testimony when he told the committee that foreigners did not "offer or provide assistance" to the Trump campaign and he did not seek any foreign assistance. He pointed to a recent New York Times report that revealed Trump Jr. met in the months before the 2016 election with George Nader, an emissary for Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, and an Israeli social media specialist offering help to the Trump campaign.

But Grassley defended Trump Jr., arguing that Coons was comparing committee testimony to news reports and suggesting that it may not be contradictory anyway.

"Notably, even if the reporting is entirely accurate, it is not clear that anything in that article contradicts Mr. Trump, Jr.'s testimony, let alone materially so," Grassley wrote. "Your letter cited to five questions from the transcript, but the last three do not appear to be implicated by the content of the New York Times article. Even regarding the other two, while it is possible there could be contradictions, there are potentially innocuous explanations as well."

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