Sen. Chuck Grassley (R., Iowa), chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, on Thursday threatened President Donald Trump's eldest son, Donald Trump Jr., and his former campaign manager, Paul Manafort, with subpoenas if they do not appear before his committee next week for their scheduled appearance.
Trump Jr. and Manafort are scheduled to testify before the Senate Judiciary Committee next Wednesday regarding their meeting with a Russian lawyer in June 2016, but neither of them have publicly confirmed whether they will appear, according to CNN.
"We sent the letter, I don't know whether they've accepted, but we sent the letter and we asked them for a voluntary appearance, and we also, I think we've indicated to them that—I don't know if we said it in the letter or not—but we indicated to them, at least publicly I indicated to them that there will be a subpoena if they don't come," Grassley told CNN.
"We are having a hearing next Wednesday, so obviously we want to hear right away so we can get the subpoena—I hope they accept the subpoena voluntarily, but if they don't then you have to have a marshal give it and that takes a little more time," Grassley added.
Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D., Calif.), the top Democrat on the committee, reiterated the subpoena threat if they do not appear.
Trump Jr. agreed to a meeting with Russian lawyer Natalia Veselnitskaya last summer, which was predicated on receiving compromising information against Hillary Clinton as part of Russian government efforts to help his father's candidacy during the 2016 presidential election.
Manafort and Trump's son-in-law, Jared Kushner, were also in attendance at the meeting.