WASHINGTON – The mysterious phone calls that Donald Trump Jr. made before and after his meeting with a Russian lawyer in Trump Tower were not to his father, President Donald Trump, but rather to several business associates, according to media reports.

The reports, from CNN and ABC News, which cited unnamed sources, say records given to the Senate Intelligence Committee revealed the identities of who Trump Jr. spoke with both in the hours after and in the days before the notorious 2016 meeting with Russian attorney Natalia Veselnitskaya, who the president's eldest son thought had compromising information on rival Hillary Clinton.

The reports cast doubt on a theory long held by Democrats that the blocked phone calls were to his father, informing him of the controversial meeting. The Democrats theory seemed to hold weight for months due to contradicting explanations given by Trump Jr. about the meeting.

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Trump Jr. first said the meeting was about U.S. - Russia adoption policies but that changed after the New York Times inquired about emails that showed the meeting was set up with the promise of obtaining "dirt" on Clinton.

Trump Jr.'s phone calls became a focus due to the mysteriously blocked numbers. When he appeared before Congress, Trump Jr. said he did not remember who he spoke with in three calls with blocked numbers but said that he didn't speak to his father.

The president called the revelations about the calls "really sad."

"Just out: The big deal, very mysterious Don jr telephone calls, after the innocent Trump Tower meeting, that the media & Dems said were made to his father (me), were just conclusively found NOT to be made to me," Trump wrote on Twitter late Thursday. "They were made to friends & business associates of Don. Really sad!"

Trump Jr. also relished in the news.

"More of the Democrat’s #fakenews narrative disappearing before their eyes," he wrote on Twitter. "I wonder how many more false leaks will pop now to keep their dreams alive???"

Two of the disputed phone calls happened two days before the June 9, 2016 meeting and a third, a three-minute conversation, happened just after the meeting, CNN reported.

"I simply don't remember," Trump Jr. told members of the Senate Judiciary Committee in September 2017 when asked about who he spoke with on the phone.

ABC News reported the phone calls were to NASCAR CEO Brian France and real estate developer Howard Lorber, citing three anonymous sources.

Trump Jr. and his attorney did not respond to inquiries from USA TODAY.

The first two phone calls happened on June 6, 2016, lasting about 11 minutes in total. The calls came one day before Trump, who was then a candidate for president, teased a "very interesting" announcement on Clinton. The calls also happened the same day Trump Jr. spoke with Russian pop star Emin Agalarov, whose publicist Rob Goldstone, set up the meeting, according to CNN.

Agalarov’s father, Aras, is a self-made oligarch and a billionaire developer. He and Trump partnered together to bring the Miss Universe pageant to Moscow in 2013.

Democrats argued while this might clear up one unknown aspect of the Trump Tower meeting, it's still unclear why Trump Jr., Trump's campaign chairman, Paul Manafort, and his son-in-law, Jared Kushner, would take a meeting with a foreign national who was offering information on behalf of the Russian government.

"I don't think this clears up much at all," Rep. Eric Swalwell argued on CNN.

Swalwell, D-Calf., said if President Trump and his administration wants to put this whole inquiry about Russian influence in the election to rest, "just sit down in Bob Mueller's interview chair and come clean."