President’s eldest son is reportedly expected to talk about Moscow Trump Tower project, 2016 meeting with Russian lawyer

Donald Trump Jr, the eldest son of US President Donald Trump, will be interviewed on Wednesday by the Senate Intelligence Committee, Reuters News Agency reported, citing a congressional source.

The closed-door appearance is expected to cover a broad array of topics, including what Trump Jr knew about a Trump Tower project in Moscow and a June 2016 meeting, during which Trump Jr and election campaign advisers Jared Kushner and Paul Manafort met a Russian lawyer whom they believed had damaging information on Hillary Clinton, Trump’s Democratic presidential election opponent.

The source, who was not authorised to discuss the confidential interview publicly, requested anonymity.

The panel’s staff interviewed Trump Jr in December 2017. Senators had renewed interest after Trump’s former lawyer, Michael Cohen, testified earlier this year.

In February testimony, Cohen said he had briefed Trump Jr about a plan to build a Trump Tower in Moscow.

But Trump Jr had told the Senate Judiciary Committee he was “peripherally aware” of the proposal.

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Cohen last month began serving a prison sentence after pleading guilty in two federal criminal cases.

Cohen also told Congress that some reimbursement checks issued to him for hush-money payments to an adult film star who said she had an affair with Trump were signed by Trump Jr, as well as the Trump Organization’s chief financial officer.

The Senate Intelligence Committee, chaired by Republican Richard Burr, is the only congressional panel doing a genuinely bipartisan investigation of Russian interference in US politics and the 2016 presidential election, in particular.

Separately on Tuesday, the House of Representatives authorised federal court action against Trump administration officials who defy congressional subpoenas.