President Trump said Thursday that he was “very surprised” that the Republican-led Senate intelligence committee was seeking to force his son’s testimony, saying inquires into Donald Trump Jr. are “oppo research.”
“My son is a good person. My son testified for hours and hours. My son was totally exonerated by Mueller, who frankly does not like Donald Trump,” the president told reporters at the White House.
Donald Trump Jr. was subpoenaed this week by the intelligence committee, which is led by Republican Sen. Richard Burr of North Carolina.
Trump Jr. was a central subject of intrigue in special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation due to his attendance at a 2016 Trump Tower meeting with Russians claiming to have dirt on Hillary Clinton.
Although his former personal attorney Michael Cohen suggested Trump knew about the meeting at the time, Trump said Thursday, “I never knew about the meeting.”
“Frankly for my son, after being exonerated, to now get a subpoena to go again, to speak again, after close to 20 hours of telling everybody that would listen about a nothing meeting? Yeah, I’m pretty surprised,” Trump said. “The last thing he needs is Washington, D.C. He would rather not ever be involved.”
Trump did not directly criticize Republican senators for allowing the subpoena, but said, “I saw Richard Burr saying there was no collusion two or three weeks ago.”
He declined to say if his son would challenge the subpoena.
“The Mueller report came out —that’s the Bible — the Mueller report came out and they said he did nothing wrong. The only thing is it’s oppo research — if he did wrong then everyone standing with me probably” did,” Trump said.
