Sen. Chuck Grassley’s response Wednesday to Donald Trump Jr.’s bombshell email was to see if there’s any possible way to blame the Obama administration.

Grassley made news during his weekly call with reporters by saying that he intends to call Paul Manafort, former manager of the Donald Trump presidential campaign, to testify before the Senate Judiciary Committee.

The reason? To find out who let Russians into the country without registering as foreign agents.

“I want to be honest with you, my motive for bringing him into the committee is because of other involvements with whether or not the Foreign Agents Registration Act has been adequately enforced by this administration and by the Obama administration,” Grassley said. “Because I think it has been lackadaisical enforcement and I think he’s been an example of lackadaisical enforcement.”

Let’s slow down for a second. The president’s son released emails that show him enthusiastically embracing the idea of getting damaging information about Hillary Clinton from a “Russian government lawyer” that would help his father’s campaign.

Trump Jr., Manafort and President Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, met with the Russian lawyer on June 9, 2016. Trump Jr. said in his statement there was no Clinton dirt provided at the meeting, but the mere fact the meeting was held is alarming.

At best, Trump Jr. is exposing himself and potentially other close associates of the president as shameless liars. Trump Jr. called the New York Times’ scoop about the June 2016 meeting in Trump Tower “lies.” The president called it “fake news.”

That Trump’s circle is truth-challenged isn’t exactly news, however.

At worst, Trump Jr. may have incriminated himself and other campaign leaders by essentially admitting to collusion with Russian meddling in the election or perhaps conspiring to violate campaign finance laws. But Grassley took a pass when asked whether Trump Jr.’s email raised concerns about criminal activity.

“First of all, if there’s anything criminal, I shouldn’t give a judgment on that. That is in the terrain of everything the special counsel is doing,” he said.

He says he’d be concerned if “other people” knew about Russian involvement in the campaign and lied about that. But he said he doesn’t know at this point what those unnamed other people — like maybe the president? — knew. For the record, the statement from the White House is that the president didn’t know about the meeting.

But what Grassley wants to know is how that Russian lawyer, Natalia Veselnitskaya, could be in the country, apparently without a visa and without registering as a foreign agent. The Foreign Agent Registration Act, which dates to 1938, today mostly applies to lobbyists of foreign governments who are trying to influence U.S. policy. It’s a worthwhile question to ask but also one least likely to cast the president and his campaign in a negative light.

If that was the lawyer’s status in June 2016, that was under the Obama administration’s watch. So, I guess if Obama hadn’t let Russian agents into the country without appropriate disclosure, the poor Trump campaign wouldn’t be in this pickle, right?

It’s not the first time Grassley has worked to shift blame for the whole Russian fiasco. He took a similar stance toward the controversy surrounding former national security adviser Michael Flynn. Grassley was focused on bringing to justice those who leaked classified information about a meeting between Flynn and the Russian ambassador. As an afterthought, Grassley also supported holding Flynn accountable for failing to disclose that meeting.

Obradovich: Grassley targets intelligence leakers; Flynn's an afterthought

Now, Grassley is also raising the question about whether Manafort himself, who previously did consulting work for an organization closely tied to the president of Ukraine, should have registered as a foreign agent. And he also pointed out that having Manafort testify, under subpoena if necessary, would give Democrats on the committee the chance to question Manafort about the June meeting.

Grassley, asked if he thinks this situation is more than a media-created controversy, said the four congressional committees have the ability to “get into almost everything that’s connected with it, except maybe the stuff that gets right down to criminal activity.”

With this wide latitude, Grassley seems to be taking an awfully narrow focus with this concern about registration of foreign agents. At the same time, his action to bring Manafort before the Judiciary Committee should allow other senators to raise the questions that Grassley isn’t asking.

Perhaps it’s just Grassley’s sly way of moving his committee investigation forward without appearing disloyal to the president. Or maybe it’s an increasingly feeble effort to blame Obama for another Trump fiasco.

Kathie Obradovich is the Register's political columnist. Contact: kobradov@registermedia.com Twitter: @kobradovich