The Latest: Senate intel panel asks Trump Jr. for documents

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Latest on President Donald Trump and the investigation into his campaign’s potential ties to Russia (all times local):

5:40 p.m.

The top Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee says the panel has requested documents from Donald Trump Jr.

Virginia Sen. Mark Warner said the committee requested the documents “as recently as this week,” after President Donald Trump’s son released emails in which he appeared eager to accept Russian government information that could damage Hillary Clinton’s campaign.

Warner has said he wants Trump Jr. to testify. The president’s son tweeted Monday that he would work with the panel.

Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, is also expected to testify in closed session. Warner said they are still waiting to receive some documents from Kushner.

Warner said the panel “is just now starting to interview those individuals who are affiliated with the Trump campaign who may or may not have had contacts with Russians.”

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5 p.m.

Former Attorney General Loretta Lynch says she had nothing to do with the travels of a Russian lawyer who met with the eldest son of President Donald Trump.

She was responding Thursday to a claim by Trump that Natalia Veselnitskaya “was here because of Lynch.”

Trump appeared to be referencing an article in The Hill newspaper that said the Justice Department had enabled Veselnitskaya to be in the United States.

An assistant United States attorney said in a January court hearing that the federal government had bypassed ordinary visa procedures so that Veselnitskaya, and her client, could be in the U.S. to participate in a court case.

In a statement, Lynch said the State Department issues visas, and the Department of Homeland Security oversees entry to the U.S. at airports.

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3:45 p.m.

President Donald Trump has argued that he did all he could to confront Russian President Vladimir Putin on election meddling and said he told Putin the U.S. “can’t have a scintilla of doubt” about the integrity of future votes.

Trump told reporters onboard Air Force One en route to France on Wednesday that Putin twice denied any meddling and the president asked what more he could have done.

Trump asked: “What do you do? End up in a fistfight with somebody, OK?”

Trump also disputed that Putin ever claimed Trump had accepted his denials, insisting Putin “didn’t say that.”

Putin had said it seemed to him that Trump had “agreed” but added “it’s better to ask him about his attitude.”

The White House originally said Trump’s comments would be off the record, but reversed itself on Thursday.

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12:15 p.m.

President Donald Trump is addressing the controversy over his eldest son’s meeting with a Russian attorney during last year’s presidential campaign.

Trump says “most people would have taken that meeting,” contradicting his incoming FBI director’s testimony that Donald Trump Jr. should have instead alerted authorities.

The president is reiterating that his son is a “wonderful young man.” His comments came during a joint news conference with French President Emmanuel Macron (eh-mahn-yoo-EHL’ mah-KROHN’)

Trump is continuing to downplay the issue, saying “nothing happened” as a result of the meeting.

The president says the Russian national involved wasn’t a government lawyer. However, the emails his son received pitched her as one.

Trump says the woman is a private attorney who has “roamed the hallways” of the U.S. Congress.

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12:10 p.m.

The chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee says he’s sending a letter to Donald Trump Jr. to ask him to testify.

Sen. Chuck Grassley says he’d subpoena the president’s eldest son if necessary. The Iowa Republican says he wants Trump Jr. to appear “pretty soon,” and it could be as early as next week.

Trump Jr. released emails this week from 2016 in which he appeared eager to accept information from the Russian government that could have damaged Hillary Clinton’s campaign.

The panel is investigating Russian meddling in the U.S. election. Grassley wouldn’t say what he wants to hear from the president’s eldest son, but said members aren’t restricted “from asking anything they want to ask.”

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11:40 a.m.

The Justice Department has released a heavily blacked out page from Attorney General Jeff Sessions’ security clearance application.

The document has become public in response to a government watchdog group’s lawsuit.

The application page asks whether Sessions — a senator before joining the Trump administration — or anyone in his immediate family had contact within the past seven years with a foreign government or its representatives.

There’s a “no” listed, but the rest of the answer is blacked out.

The department has acknowledged that Sessions — on his form — omitted meetings he had with foreign dignitaries, including the Russian ambassador.

A department spokesman says the FBI agent who helped with the form said those encounters didn’t have to be included as routine contacts as part of Sessions’ Senate duties.

Source: www.apnews.com