- President Trump says a GOP senator's subpoena for testimony from Donald Trump, Jr. came as a surprise to him
- Defended his son on Wednesday as a 'good person' who attended a 'nothing' meeting with Russians during the campaign
- 'I was very surprised. I saw Richard Burr saying there was no collusion two or three weeks ago,' he said. 'My son’s a very good person, works very hard'
- A source with knowledge of the situation said subpoena came weeks ago
- President seemed to think subpoena was about his son's meeting with a Russian lawyer in Trump Tower in New York during the 2016 campaign
- Don Jr. may be asked to clarify his earlier testimony about Trump Tower Moscow
- President's son told a Senate panel in 2017 that he had been only 'peripherally aware of it' and knew 'very little' about the project's progress
- The never-built skyscraper was a pet project of Michael Cohen, the president's disgraced and now jailed former lawyer who lied to Congress
- Subpoena came from the Republican chairman of the Senate Intel Committee
President Trump says a GOP senator's subpoena for testimony from Donald Trump, Jr. came as a surprise to him.
He defended his son on Thursday as a 'good person' who attended a 'nothing' meeting with Russians during the campaign.
'I was very surprised. I saw Richard Burr saying there was no collusion two or three weeks ago. He went outside and someone asked him, "No there’s no collusion, we found no collusion." But I was very surprised to see my son – my son’s a very good person, works very hard,' he stated.
Trump said his son, who runs the Trump Organization with his brother Eric, didn't need the headache of another congressional appearance. 'The last thing he needs is Washington D.C.' he said.
'He’s now testified for 20 hours, or something, a massive amount of time. The Mueller report came out – that’s the Bible – the Mueller report came out and they said he did nothing wrong,' the president said.
Donald Trump Jr. is the subject of a subpoena from the Senate Intelligence Committee, a panel led by Republicans, in an unexpected escalation of tensions between Congress and the first family this week.
The news website Axios first reported the committee's demand and suggested it's related to the ill-fated Trump Tower Moscow, a 2015-2016 real estate venture helmed by President Donald Trump's former attorney Michael Cohen.
A source with knowledge of the situation confirmed to DailyMail.com on Wednesday afternoon that the subpoena was received 'a few weeks ago.' The source wouldn't provide other details.
Cohen reported to federal prison on Monday to serve a three-year sentence for fraud and for lying to Congress in November about how long into the 2016 presidential campaign the Moscow project survived.
He implicated the president in campaign finance violations, and the Trump children in his shady business dealings.
Don Jr. testified about the proposed skyscraper in a closed-door Senate Judiciary Committee session two years ago. A transcript released later shows he claimed to have been only 'peripherally aware of it' and knew 'very little' about its progress.
A committee spokesman told Axios that committee leaders have 'reserved the right to recall witnesses for additional testimony as needed, as every witness and witness counsel has been made aware.'
Republican chairman Richard Burr and ranking Democrat Mark Warner of Virginia are known as bipartisan operators.
They have run their own Russia-related investigation in parallel with Special Counsel Robert Mueller's probe.
Burr's move is being viewed in Washington as a contrast to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell's call for Congress to stand down on Trump-Russia scandals and related investigations.
He said in a dramatic speech this week that it's 'case closed' on the collusion and election meddling probes.
A source close to Don Jr. told DailyMail.com shortly after the news of the subpoena broke: 'Don is a private citizen, who has already been cleared by Mueller after a two year investigation. He has done 8-9 hours of testimony in front of Senate Intel already and 27 hours of testimony in front of various committees in total.
'When he originally agreed to testify in front of the Senate Intel Committee in 2017, there was an agreement between Don and the Committee that he would only have to come in and testify a single time as long as he was willing to stay for as long as they’d like, which Don did,' the insider added.
'Don continues to cooperate by producing documents and is willing to answer written questions, but no lawyer would ever agree to allow their client to participate in what is an obvious PR stunt from a so-called “Republican” Senator too cowardly to stand up to his boss Mark Warner and the rest of the resistance Democrats on the committee.'
Axios speculated that the subpoena is an indication that Don Jr. 'declined a request to appear' for more testimony.
Cohen told the House Oversight Committee in February that he briefed the president's eldest son and Ivanka Trump at least 10 times about Trump Tower Moscow.
An architect's drawing of Trump Tower Moscow first published by Buzzfeed showed a glass obelisk 100 stories high and was branded with Donald Trump's logo
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