On Wednesday, Donald Trump Jr. cited attorney-client privilege to excuse himself from answering questions about a conversation he had with his father, President Donald Trump, when news broke about his Russia meeting during the summer of 2016.
Trump Jr. allegedly told the House Intelligence Committee that there was a lawyer present in the room when he had that discussion, an excuse that the committee’s top Democrat, Rep. Adam Schiff of California, disputed.
–Donald Trump Jr. met with Russian lawyer over ‘damaging’ info about Clinton–
“I don’t believe you can shield communications between individuals merely by having an attorney present,” he said after the Trump Jr. interview. “That’s not the purpose of attorney-client privilege.”
“I don’t think my colleagues on the other side of the aisle would dispute the fact that as to this very central conversation between father and son, the witness declined to answer the question,” he also said.
Republicans on the committee indicated that they were happy with the answers that Trump Jr. gave.
Trump Jr. has come under fire for the 2016 meeting, which he initially characterized as being a short one in which the topic of adoption was discussed.
However, he has since had to revise his statement multiple times as more information has come out about the meeting, including the number of people there and emails Trump Jr. had before the meeting suggesting that information meant to damage Hillary Clinton would be available during the meeting.