Donald Trump Jr will testify in a closed-door interview with the Senate intelligence committee next month, pulling the two sides back from a confrontation over a subpoena as part of the panel’s Russia investigation. Under the terms of the deal between the president’s son and lawmakers, Trump Jr will talk to the committee in mid-June for up to four hours, according to two people familiar with the agreement. The people spoke on condition of anonymity on Tuesday to discuss the confidential terms. The deal comes after the panel subpoenaed Trump Jr to discuss answers he gave the panel’s staff in a 2017 interview. He had backed out of interviews twice, prompting the subpoena, according to people familiar with the Senate intelligence committee chairman’s remarks to a GOP luncheon last week. Those people spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss Richard Burr’s remarks in the private senators’ meeting. The deadline for Trump Jr to respond was Monday, according to one of the people familiar with the terms, and he expected to be held in contempt for declining to be interviewed. But the committee reached out Monday evening and the deal was struck. A spokeswoman for Burr declined to comment. The North Carolina Republican has weathered fierce criticism for the subpoena from the president and his GOP colleagues. Trump said on Tuesday said he believed that his son was being treated poorly. “It’s really a tough situation because my son spent, I guess, over 20 hours testifying about something that Mueller said was 100% OK and now they want him to testify again,” Trump told reporters at the White House before traveling to Louisiana. “I don’t know why. I have no idea why. But it seems very unfair to me.” It’s the first known subpoena of a member of the president’s immediate family, and some Republicans went as far as to say they thought Trump Jr shouldn’t comply. Senator Thom Tillis of North Carolina tweeted: “It’s time to move on & start focusing on issues that matter to Americans.” Senator John Cornyn of Texas, a GOP member of the panel, said he understood Trump Jr’s frustration. Cornyn’s Texas colleague Ted Cruz said there was “no need” for the subpoena. The Senate judiciary committee chairman, the Republican Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, said on “Fox News Sunday” that if he were Trump Jr.’s lawyer, “I would tell him, ‘You don’t need to go back into this environment any more.”’ The Senate majority leader, Mitch McConnell, has defended Burr, telling his colleagues during the private GOP luncheon last week that he trusted the intelligence committee chairman. On Tuesday, McConnell told reporters that “none of us tell Chairman Burr how to run his committee”. Still, McConnell made it clear that he is eager to be finished with the inquiry, which has now gone on for more than two years. Burr has “indicated publicly he believes they will find no collusion” with Russia, McConnell said. “We’re hoping we will get a report on that subject sometime soon.” Burr told the Associated Press this month that he hopes to be finished with the investigation by the end of the year. Burr’s committee had renewed interest in talking to Trump Jr after Trump’s former lawyer, Michael Cohen, told a House committee in February that he had briefed Trump Jr approximately 10 times about a plan to build a Trump Tower in Moscow before the presidential election. Trump Jr told the Senate judiciary committee in a separate interview in 2017 he was only “peripherally aware” of the proposal. The panel is also interested in talking to the president’s eldest son about other topics, including a campaign meeting in Trump Tower with a Russian lawyer.<doc-sep>WASHINGTON — Donald Trump Jr. has agreed to testify next month before the Republican-led Senate Intelligence Committee, a source close to the president's eldest son confirmed to NBC News on Tuesday. The source said that the closed-door session will be under oath and is expected to take place in mid-June. It will be limited to five to six topics and Trump Jr.'s appearance will last between two and four hours. This comes after the Intelligence Committee, chaired by Sen. Richard Burr, R-N.C., said last week that it had issued a subpoena for Trump Jr. to answer questions about his assertion that he only had limited knowledge of a project to build a Trump Tower in Moscow. The scope and length of the testimony were the major sticking points between Trump Jr. and the committee, the source said, adding that the president's son was was prepared to defy the subpoena until late Monday afternoon when the panel reached out to Trump Jr.s legal team to discuss an agreement. President Donald Trump said last week that he was surprised his son was subpoenaed. "My son is a very good person, he works very hard," Trump said. "The last thing he needs is Washington, D.C." Burr received significant blowback from Republicans for issuing the subpoena after Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., declared last week that it was "case closed" on the Russia investigation in the wake of the release of special counsel Robert Mueller report. Meanwhile, the Democratic-led House Intelligence Committee is investigating whether personal lawyers for Trump and his family tried to obstruct special counsel Robert Mueller's investigation by helping Michael Cohen deliver false testimony. The committee's chairman, Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., sent letters to four lawyers requesting documents related to Cohen, who told Congress in public testimony in February that the attorneys helped edit inaccurate testimony from 2017 that Cohen gave to lawmakers about a Trump Tower project in Moscow. "Among other things, it appears that your clients may have reviewed, shaped and edited the false statement that Cohen submitted to the committee, including causing the omission of material facts," Schiff said in one of the letters obtained by NBC News on Tuesday. The story was first reported by The New York Times. In his opening statement to Congress earlier this year, Cohen, who recently started a three-year prison sentence, said that Trump lied about his ongoing efforts to build a Trump Tower in Moscow during the 2016 campaign election and the president had suggested Cohen lie. The attorneys are Trump's lawyer, Jay Sekulow, Donald Trump Jr.'s lawyer, Alan S. Futerfas, Trump Organization lawyer Alan Garten and Ivanka Trump's lawyer, Abbe D. Lowell. Download the NBC News app for breaking news and politics A May 3 letter from Schiff to the lawyers' representatives asked that the attorneys "produce the requested documents and contact the committee staff to schedule dates for voluntary interviews" no later than last Thursday. "Material in the Committee's possession, as well as Michael Cohen's Committee testimony and admissions to the Special Counsel's Office, raise serious, unresolved concerns about the obstruction of our Committee's investigation that we would be negligent not to pursue," Schiff said in the statement. "If any individual is allowed to lie to our committee or encourage others to do so, hide behind inapplicable privileges, or otherwise fail to provide anything less than full cooperation, other witnesses will be emboldened to similarly obstruct, both now and in the future. We must not allow that to happen," he added. Patrick Strawbridge, who is Sekelow's lawyer, released a statement Tuesday on behalf of the four lawyers. "Instead of addressing important intelligence needs, the House Intelligence Committee appears to seek a truly needless dispute — this one with private attorneys — that would force them to violate privileges and ethical rules," he said. "As committed defense lawyers, we will respect the constitution and defend the attorney-client privilege — one of the oldest and most sacred privileges in the law."<doc-sep>Trump Jr. is expected to face questions in six broad categories, whittled down from an original list of 10, according to people familiar with the deal to secure his testimony — including his participation in the June 2016 meeting, as well as his knowledge of the president’s efforts well into his campaign to build a Trump Tower in Moscow, according to people familiar with the deal to secure his testimony in June.<doc-sep>
Donald Trump Jr. has reached an eleventh-hour agreement to testify before the Republican-led Senate Intelligence Committee, most likely in June, Fox News has learned. The development capped a contentious episode that began when the panel, led by Chairman Richard Burr, R-N.C., and Ranking Member Mark Warner, D-Va., subpoenaed the president's son over remarks he made while testifying before the committee in 2017. Trump Jr. had been concerned about an open-ended time and subject commitment, Fox News is told. In addition, Fox News has learned Trump Jr. was prepared to make the committee hold him in contempt and had a defiant letter drafted and ready to send -- but at the last minute, the committee reached out to resolve the dispute. Ultimately, the panel agreed to limit questioning to 1 to 2 hours, with narrow room for follow-ups, Fox News has learned. A source familiar with the discussions told Fox News the panel never would agree to limit topics. TRUMP 'VERY SURPRISED' BY DON JR. SUBPOENA, SAYS SON HAS TESTIFED FOR 'HOURS AND HOURS' ALREADY Trump Jr.'s letter of refusal – which was never sent -- cited the 20-plus hours of testimony and thousands of documents that he has already given to congressional committees, as well as his exoneration in Special Counsel Robert Mueller's report. The committee’s demand to have Trump Jr. testify again reportedly is related to former Trump attorney Michael Cohen’s testimony earlier this year. Cohen, who reported to prison this week to begin a three-year sentence, told a House committee that he had briefed Trump Jr. approximately 10 times about a plan to build a Trump Tower in Moscow. But, in 2017, Trump Jr. told the Senate Intelligence Committee he was only “peripherally aware” of the proposal. In his draft letter to the committee, Trump Jr. pointed out that Cohen has pleaded guilty to multiple federal crimes, including lying to Congress. The Intelligence Committee's demand rankled top Republicans, including President Trump and Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Lindsey Graham. "Anything based on what Michael Cohen said is worthless testimony. Michael Cohen is a worthless witness, and if I were Donald Trump Jr.'s lawyer I would tell him, 'You don't need to go back into this environment anymore, you've been there for hours and hours and hours. And nothing being alleged here changes the outcome of the Mueller investigation,'" Graham, R-S.C., said. "I would call it a day." CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP Trump Jr. has testified before congressional committees multiple times as part of their Russia investigations. Trump Jr. first fell under scrutiny in the early summer of 2017, after it was revealed that he helped to organize, and then attend, a meeting with Russian lawyer Natalia Veselnitskaya in Trump Tower in New York City. The meeting initially was billed as one where Trump Jr. and members of the Trump campaign could obtain “dirt” on Hillary Clinton for their benefit in the 2016 election. The meeting apparently did not reveal any dirt on Clinton, but Trump Jr., Trump son-in-law Jared Kushner, and former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort attended the June 2016 meeting. Special Counsel Robert Mueller also investigated the meeting. Both the Moscow project and June 2016 meeting are top priorities for the committee's questioning, the source said. Fox News' Mike Emanuel and Brooke Singman contributed to this report.