What Happened?

Senior Adviser and son-in-law to President Donald Trump, Jared Kushner, testified before the Senate Intelligence Committee (SIC) on Monday about the potential collusion between Trump and Russia.

The investigation, initiated by the FBI and SIC in May, is centered around allegations that the son of the president, Donald Trump Jr., met with a Russian lawyer in 2016 regarding the United States presidential election and Hillary Clinton, according to the SIC investigation.

Trump Jr. was promised information about Clinton from the Russian government that would have damaged her campaign, according to The New York Times. Early Monday morning, Trump took to Twitter to vent about the investigation in a string of tweets.

“So why aren’t the Committees and investigators, and of course our beleaguered A.G., looking into Crooked Hillarys crimes & Russia relations?” Trump tweeted. “After 1 year of investigation with Zero evidence being found, Chuck Schumer just stated that “Democrats should blame ourselves, not Russia.”

According to a statement made by Kushner on Monday to the SIC committee, he arrived at the meeting late because it was rescheduled and when he got there, Trump Jr. introduced him to somebody identified as a Russian lawyer. Kushner also confirmed in his statement that he left early and for the brief time he was there, there wasn’t any mention of the campaign or Clinton.

In the second statement Trump Jr. gave to the committee last week, he confirmed Kushner was not there for the part about the campaign and Clinton, but also admitted the lawyer brought up the campaign after some talk about Russian adoption policies.

According to The Washington Post, in the first statement given to the committee by Trump Jr., he tried to cover up the reason for the meeting, gathering damaging information against Clinton, and his father, Trump Sr. “signed off” on the original statement implicating Trump was involved in a cover up, a potentially criminal offense.

At the time of publication, it was still unclear if this investigation would lead to any disciplinary action or charges. However, several notable publications including The New York Times and The Washington Post reported on Monday and Tuesday that Trump inquired to some of his staff members about pardoning himself and others in his cabinet.