WASHINGTON — Senate Judiciary Chairman Chuck Grassley told reporters Wednesday that he intends to call former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort to testify and will subpoena him if necessary as part of the panel's investigation into Russian meddling in last year's presidential election.

Grassley spokesman Taylor Foy confirmed that the Iowa Republican made that statement as part of a press call with Iowa reporters. Sen. Dianne Feinstein of California, the senior Democrat on the Judiciary Committee, told reporters she supports Grassley's effort.

Grassley said he wants to question Manafort about enforcement of the Foreign Agent Registration Act. Manafort belatedly registered in June as a foreign agent for a pro-Russia group in Ukraine, disclosing that his firm was paid slightly more than $17 million over two years between 2012 and 2014, according to documents filed with the Justice Department.

Manafort's work in Ukraine has drawn the scrutiny of federal investigators and Russia special counsel Robert Mueller.

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Manafort will also undoubtedly be questioned by committee members about this week's revelations that he, Donald Trump Jr. and Jared Kushner, who is President Trump's son-in-law and senior adviser, met with a Russian lawyer in June 2016 because they believed she had incriminating information about Hillary Clinton.

That meeting, first reported by The New York Times, was confirmed Tuesday by Trump Jr., who released a series of emails about the meeting.

Foy said Grassley has not yet decided whether to call Trump Jr. and Kushner to testify. He said the committee will coordinate with Mueller to ensure that bringing in Manafort to testify will not conflict with Mueller's criminal investigation.

Congressional investigators have been consulting with Mueller to avoid any conflicts in their concurrent probes. Judiciary Committee staffers were scheduled to meet with Mueller's staff this week.

Grassley raised questions late Tuesday about why the Russian attorney at that 2016 meeting with Manafort, Kushner and Trump Jr. was even allowed into the U.S.

Grassley wrote a letter to Homeland Security Secretary John Kelly and Secretary of State Rex Tillerson asking why former Russian prosecutor Natalia Veselnitskaya was in the country when she had been denied a U.S. visa to travel to the United States from Russia to participate in litigation.

Although she was later granted immigration parole to make the trip, her parole was set to expire on Jan. 7, 2016, and her request to extend her stay was denied on Jan. 4, 2016, Grassley said in a press release. Her meeting with the Trump campaign officials took place six months later.

"In that meeting, she reportedly discussed the Russian ban on adoptions of Russian children by Americans, a retaliation for the U.S. enactment of the Magnitsky Act, a U.S. law that blacklisted Russians who were determined to have engaged in certain human rights violations," Grassley's press release said. "Veselnitskaya’s role in the Russian lobbying effort to undermine the Magnitsky Act was later cited in a complaint that she and her comrades failed to register as Russian agents under the Foreign Agent Registration Act."

The senator has frequently expressed concern about whether the Justice Department is adequately enforcing that law.

Foy said Wednesday that Grassley had not yet received a response to his letter.

The Senate Judiciary Committee is one of three congressional panels investigating Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election and possible collusion between the Trump campaign and Russian officials. The Senate and House Intelligence committees also are conducting their own probes.

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