Trump Jr. To Testify; Mueller Issues Subpoenas To Manafort Lawyer, Spokesman

It’s easy to get caught up in all of the apocalyptic flood footage.

It’s also easy to lose yourself in the whole nuclear brinksmanship story.

Because as far as bad shit goes, apocalyptic floods and nuclear wars are right up there with things like catastrophic meteor strikes.

A little further down that list is “high treason.” And the reason I bring that up is because in case you missed it, there was some of that going on last year.

The last time we checked on the Trump-Russia story was way back yesterday, when the NY Times and WaPo reported that there was quite a bit of contact between Trump associates and the Kremlin itself, including this rather disconcerting e-mail:

Well on Tuesday, we learn that the Senate Judiciary Committee is set to hear closed-door testimony from Donald Trump Jr. Here’s CNN:

President Trump’s eldest son, Donald Trump Jr., has agreed to sit down for a transcribed interview with the Senate judiciary committee, as investigators continue to dig into his attendance at a 2016 meeting where he was promised Russian dirt on the Clinton campaign.

After weeks of discussions, Trump Jr. has agreed on a date to be interviewed by the panel in private, according to Taylor Foy, spokesman for committee Chairman Chuck Grassley. Trump Jr. will be interviewed by senior committee staff, and senators will be invited to attend, Foy said.

After the Senate judiciary committee invited him to attend a July hearing to testify in public, Trump Jr. instead cut a deal with the committee to avoid the open session. It’s unclear if he will eventually testify publicly.

And Politico:

The committee would not divulge the exact date, but another source familiar with the matter said the testimony would likely occur in the “next few weeks.” Trump Jr. is expected to be grilled about his meeting with a Kremlin-linked lawyer during his father’s presidential campaign in which he was promised compromising information on Hillary Clinton.

Trump Jr. had been called to publicly testify before Senate Judiciary in July, but the president’s eldest son offered to do a private interview and provide documents to the committee’s investigators instead.

It will be Trump Jr.’s first appearance on Capitol Hill, where three congressional committees are seeking to grill the president’s eldest son as part of their parallel investigations into Russian interference in the 2016 election. The Senate Intelligence Committee and the House Intelligence Committee are also probing the Kremlin’s efforts and whether any Trump campaign aides or allies colluded with Russian officials.

Special counsel Robert Mueller is also conducting a sprawling probe into the matter.

Speaking of ol’ “Bobby Three Sticks“,  he’s subpoenaing some folks. Here’s CNN (again, from a separate piece):

Special Counsel Robert Mueller has issued subpoenas to a former lawyer for Paul Manafort and to Manafort’s current spokesman, an aggressive tactic that suggests an effort to add pressure on the former Trump campaign chairman.

The subpoenas seeking documents and testimony were sent to Melissa Laurenza, an attorney with the Akin Gump law firm who until recently represented Manafort, and to Jason Maloni, who is Manafort’s spokesman, according to people familiar with the matter.

Manafort is under investigation for possible tax and financial crimes, according to US officials briefed on the investigation. The allegations under investigation largely center on Manafort’s work for the former ruling party in Ukraine, which was ousted amid street protests over its pro-Russian policies.

So yeah. Some folks are going to jail – that much seems clear.

Then again, we now know Donald Trump isn’t shy about exercising his pardon power.

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