The pace of all things Trump and Russia is accelerating. Every day comes news of either campaign or administration workers having been interviewed by Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s team, or new revelations about the content of intra-office FBI text messages—or the news that many such messages have gone ever so mysteriously missing. The pace quickened yet again Wednesday with President Trump’s assertion that he would be happy to speak with the Mueller people under oath (subject to his lawyers’ advice) perhaps even within the next two or three weeks.
Thursday’s news of hurry-up offense comes from the Senate Judiciary Committee, where chairman Chuck Grassley announced in prepared remarks: “I believe this Committee’s interviews of the witnesses surrounding the Trump Tower meeting are complete. That section of our investigation is done.” This, even though the committee has yet to talk with such relevant witnesses as Jared Kushner.
Grassley said there was little chance the Senate would be able to talk with them, and he blamed Sen. Dianne Feinstein: She “unilaterally released the transcript of Fusion GPS founder Glenn Simpson,” Grassley said. “That has spooked other potential witnesses.”
The chairman proposed that, since “our chances of getting a voluntary interview with Mr. Kushner have been shot,” instead they should turn to the transcript of closed-door Kushner testimony the witness has given to other senators: “He has already provided his account to the Intelligence Committee,” Grassley said.
What’s the significance of declaring the committee’s investigation complete? Having gathered all the information it is going to gather, the committee no longer has to keep closed-door testimony hush-hush, because there is no future testimony regarding the Trump Tower meeting that could be tainted. “So, now it’s time to start officially releasing the transcripts of all witness interviews we have done related to that meeting,” said Grassley. That would include the committee’s interview with Donald Trump Jr He called on Feinstein to agree to the release, but said that should Democrats not be in an agreeable mood, the release of documents could be done “possibly through a Committee vote,” one that could be assumed to go along party lines.
No doubt the pace of the intertwined Trump/Russia/FBI affairs would then reach a frenzy. Not that Grassley is worried: “Let’s get them out there for everyone to see.”
That everyone, of course will not just be the public, but the president, who might well welcome, before he meets with Mueller’s agents (if he meets with Mueller’s agents), a primer on what other witnesses have said on the record about Donald Jr.’s ill-advised Trump Tower get-together.
Which may explain Dianne Feinstein’s response to Grassley’s proposal: “I agree the transcripts should be released,” she said. But not to everyone right away—only, Feinstein said, “to Mueller, and to the public when it won’t interfere with the investigation.”
