First son Donald Trump Jr. reportedly "expects to be indicted" by Russia probe special counsel Robert Mueller and has been telling people close to him for months, a journalist said Friday, matching the accounts of other people in the political realm.
The matter came up when HBO's Real Time host Bill Maher asked The Atlantic reporter Natasha Bertrand, "Excluding [President] Trump, which family member is more likely to be in jeopardy, Don Jr. or Jared" Kushner?
"I think that Don Jr. is probably in more immediate jeopardy, just because of his congressional testimony," Bertrand replied. "I mean, he has been telling his friends and associates that he expects to be indicted, and he's been saying that for the last couple months."
Bertrand continued: "I think his accounts about the Trump Tower meeting in 2016, his accounts about Trump Tower Moscow and how involved he was in that, could put him in some legal jeopardy there." She also reminded the panel that "Mueller has shown no shyness about going after people for lying to Congress."
Trump Jr. is a subject in Mueller's probe on Russian interference and possible collusion with the Trump campaign in the 2016 presidential election because he attended a June 2016 meeting at Trump Tower with Russians who promised damaging information on Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton. The president's son-in-law Kushner also attended the meeting.
The House Intelligence Committee in December 2017 grilled Trump Jr. for about seven hours on his Russian contacts. Trump Jr. told committee members he did not tell his father about the Trump Tower meeting but the president's former lawyer, Michael Cohen—who has been indicted by Mueller—disputed the claim.
Bertrand's account of Trump Jr. expecting to be indicted and telling his friends has been uttered by others.
In December, ABC News' chief legal analyst Dan Abrams asked Fox News Judge Andrew Napolitano if he though any "of Trump's inner circle will get indicted."
"Yes. I don't know who, but I do know that Donald Jr. has told friends he expected to be indicted," Napolitano responded.
"Do you expect he'd be indicted?" Abrams said, pressing the issue.
"Yes," Napolitano said.
Trump Jr. in late October indicated he was unconcerned about anything he did regarding the Trump Tower meeting, but that Mueller's team could "fabricate" something in order to charge him.
"I know that I'm not worried about anything I actually did," Trump Jr. told USA Today. "That doesn't mean they don't totally fabricate all of this stuff at this point."
Uncommon Knowledge
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Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
About the writer
A Los Angeles native, Jessica Kwong grew up speaking Spanish, Cantonese and English, in that order. Her journalism career started ... Read more
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