Senator Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) has sent a letter to Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley (R-IA) asking that he call key witnesses in the Russia investigation to appear before the committee and answer questions in a public setting.
Ranking Member Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) was first to submit the request. Senator Blumenthal's letter – signed by all committee Democrats – supports Feinstein's call for "immediate public hearings related to potential collusion between Russia and the Trump campaign."
Blumenthal singles out the president's son and son-in-law.
These public hearings must involve the testimony of Donald Trump Jr. and Jared Kushner, along with a renewed bipartisan effort to obtain the documents that have been requested but not yet produced. While Donald Trump Jr. appeared voluntarily for a staff-level interview, he refused – before and after that interview – to produce drafts of his July 2017 statements about the June 9 meeting and communications about those drafts. He also failed to produce his direct communications with Wikileaks until after the interview, also depriving the Committee of the opportunity to question him about those materials.
It is also our understanding that Mr. Kushner has produced some, but not all, of the documents requested of him and – notably – that he has refused to provide any documents related to the sections of his security clearance forms that would reveal foreign travel and contacts. Mr. Kushner has also declined to schedule even a staff-level interview with the Committee. Mr. Kushner was a key participant in the June 9 meeting, and his testimony is essential to achieve a full understanding of that meeting and of many other episodes central to our investigation. You have repeatedly pledged to require Mr. Kushner to submit to questions by the Committee. Now that you have discontinued private staff interviews with participants in the June 9 meeting – interviews that were also never intended as a complete substitute for Member-level questioning – the only way to follow through on your commitment is to demand Mr. Kushner participate in a public hearing.
Read more: Senate Judiciary Committee Democrats Call for Public Hearings on Russian Collusion and Obstruction of Justice (press release)
Letter from Senator Blumenthal to Senator Grassley (pdf)
Democrats ask Grassley for public hearings on Russia's meddling (Politico)