Donald Trump Jr. said invoking his Fifth Amendment right to avoid self-incrimination before the Senate Intelligence Committee is “100%” the right legal move, but won’t be doing so because of a messy media firestorm that would paint him as guilty.
President Trump’s eldest son called in to Mark Levin’s radio program on Thursday and was asked to talk about being called to testify a second time for the Senate panel’s yearslong investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election.
Trump Jr. expressed his appreciation to Senate Judiciary Chairman Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., who recommended that he plead the Fifth after the committee subpoenaed him to appear, but explained why that could backfire.
[Opinion: Lindsey Graham should not be advising Trump Jr. to take the Fifth]
“The only problem is — and you can understand this as a lawyer — that’s 100% the right move. That’s the right move. It’s the safest, there are no real consequences, you go, move on. As Donald Trump Jr., it’s not so easy,” he told Levin, who is a conservative commentator and constitutional attorney. “Because you have the vast majority, liberal media would sit there [and say], ‘Oh that means he’s guilty.'”
Earlier this week, Trump reached a deal with the Senate Intelligence Committee to testify before the Republican-led group of senators in the coming weeks. According to the agreement, the testimony will be limited in both time and substance. The deal has Trump Jr. testifying for two to four hours sometime in mid-June, and the scope of the testimony will be limited to five or six topics related to his interactions with Russian officials.
During the interview, Trump Jr. expressed his thanks to GOP lawmakers, including some on the Senate Intelligence Committee for their support and said he would be eager to campaign for them in 2020. Trump Jr. also strongly suggested to Levin that he believed Chairman Richard Burr, R-N.C., caved to Democratic pressure to call him in to testify a second time, particularly those running for president. “I imagine it’s certain people who are perhaps not quite strong to stand up to their Democrats in that committee,” he said, without naming Burr.
In September 2017, Trump Jr. testified before the Senate Judiciary Committee about proposed plans for a Trump Organization project in Moscow. During his testimony, Trump Jr. said he was just “peripherally aware” of the plans, but he was later contradicted by the president’s former personal attorney and fixer Michael Cohen who told the House Oversight Committee in February that he had briefed Trump Jr. on the project about 10 times.
Cohen went to federal prison in Otisville, N.Y., in early May to start his three-year sentence for bank fraud, lying to Congress, and illegal campaign contributions.
Trump Jr. said it is “hard to believe” that the committee might be taking Cohen’s claims seriously and defended his conduct by noting special counsel Robert Mueller “totally cleared” him. Mueller, who ended his Russia investigation earlier this year, declined to prosecute Trump Jr. for campaign finance violations related to a 2016 Trump Tower meeting with a Kremlin-linked lawyer.
Calling Mueller’s team full of “Hillary-supporting, leftist lawyers,” Trump Jr. said they viewed him as “a pretty big fish to catch.”
“They would have done anything to throw me in jail or try to get me to perjure myself or to try and do something,” Trump Jr. said, adding that it is “a little bit ridiculous” that he now has to testify again.
