Senators question firm tied to Trump dossier – is MI6 spy next?
Judiciary committee grills head of firm that produced the explosive claims against the US President
Glenn Simpson, who helped compile the Trump-Russia "dirty dossier", testified for more than 10 hours behind closed doors yesterday before a Senate committee investigating Vladimir Putin's possible influence in the US election.
"The sheer length of Simpson's appearance – far longer, for instance, than Trump's son-in-law, Jared Kushner, spent earlier this summer before Senate and House intelligence committees – reflected the intrigue on Capitol Hill surrounding the dossier and the origins of the document," NBC says.
'Major players'
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Simpson is the first of three "major players" to speak to the committee about Russia's possible interference in the US election, CNN writes. Donald Trump Jr. and former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort have also arranged to speak in private but their meetings have not been scheduled.
The dossier, published by Buzzfeed, includes accusations of "altering operations against the Democratic Party leadership" during last year's election, the Daily Mail reports.
Former MI6 officer Christopher Steele, who worked as a Moscow spy and later supplied research to Fusion GPS (a firm founded by Glenn Simpson), disclosed his Trump-Russia discoveries to John McCain, US senator from Arizona, who brought the dossier to the FBI's attention.
Libel action
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Steele has kept a low profile but may be forced to testify about the document as part of a US libel suit.
A US judge ruled that Aleksej Gubarev, who is suing BuzzFeed over the dossier, can seek "British approval" to question Steele.
The libel proceedings are separate from the four US government investigations into possible Trump-Russia collusion over the 2006 election, but attempts have also been made to involve Steele in the US inquiries.
Two US congressional staffers flew to London in July, sent by an aide to Devin Nunes, chairman of the House Intelligence Committee and a White House ally, highlighting the "continuing struggle for control of the committee's investigation into Moscow's role in the 2016 US election," The Guardian reports.
Mueller sets up grand jury in Trump-Russia inquiry
04 August
US special counsel Robert Mueller has convened a grand jury in Washington as part of his investigation into allegations of collusion between Donald Trump's election campaign and Russia.
"Grand juries are investigative tools that allow prosecutors to subpoena documents, put witnesses under oath and seek indictments, if there is evidence of a crime," the Wall Street Journal says. "Mueller's decision suggests he believes he will need to subpoena records and take testimony from witnesses."
"At the very least it's a sign that Mueller could be on the trail of something big," reports BBC's North America reporter Anthony Zurcher.
Trump denies any collusion took place, CNN says, but US intelligence agencies "have concluded that Russia attempted to sway the presidential contest in Trump's favour".
"It's been clear for months that the allegations are sufficiently serious to merit a full investigation, and in the world of federal prosecutors, that means using a grand jury," Randall Eliason, a former assistant attorney for the District of Columbia, wrote in the Washington Post.
Ty Cobb, a special counsel to Trump, has denied any knowledge that Mueller had established a grand jury.
"Grand jury matters are typically secret," he said. "The White House favours anything that accelerates the conclusion of his work fairly... The White House is committed to fully cooperating with Mueller."
This is the second grand jury to be established this year, after investigators looking into former national security adviser Michael Flynn requested one in Virginia.
White House confirms Trump helped draft Don Jr's Russia statement
2 August
The White House has confirmed that Donald Trump "weighed in" on drafting a misleading statement issued by his son Donald Trump Jr, regarding a meeting with a Russian lawyer last year.
On Monday, the Washington Post reported the US President had "personally dictated a statement in which Trump Jr said that he and the Russian lawyer had 'primarily discussed a program about the adoption of Russian children'".
The report was flatly denied by Trump's personal lawyer, Jay Sekulow, later that day.
However, White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders yesterday contradicted Sekulow, saying: "The President weighed in as any father would based on the limited information that he had."
She added the original statement by Trump Jr was true. "There is no inaccuracy in the statement," she said.
The revelation that President Trump had a hand in drafting the statement, which required several updates as more information came to light, is an admission that "he is personally responsible for deliberately misleading the American people about a major topic of the Russia investigation", the Washington Post says.
Richard Painter, chief White House ethics lawyer under George W Bush, told The Guardian the news could have serious consequences. He said: "You're boxing in a witness into a false story. That puts them under enormous pressure to turn around and lie under oath to be consistent with their story. I think it's obstruction of justice."
Jared Kushner says he did not collude with Russia
25 July
Donald Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner has denied any collusion with Russia in the 2016 presidential campaign, telling reporters after a closed-door Senate hearing: "All of my actions were proper."
He added: "I did not collude with Russians, nor do I know of anyone in the campaign who did."
Kushner also released an 11-page statement laying out four meetings with Russian officials to coincide with his appearance before the Senate intelligence committee. He took no questions from reporters.
Kushner was not under oath yesterday, but lying to Congress is a federal crime. His statement, says the New York Times, is "frequently unequivocal, leaving him little room to manoeuvre if new evidence emerges to contradict his story". Members of the Trump administration have previously denied any Russian contacts during the campaign and transition, only for reporters to unearth damaging evidence to the contrary.
Among the "damaging" details that Kushner confirmed, the LA Times says, was a proposal to set up private communications with the Russian embassy outside usual channels. He also said his initial failure to report the four meetings was the fault of an aide, who had mistakenly submitted the necessary paperwork before it was complete.
Kushner's account will be shared with Robert S Mueller III, the special counsel in charge of a separate investigation into potential criminal activity surrounding the Trump campaign and Russian interference in the election, the Washington Post says.
Trump spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee Sanders said the President was "very proud" of his son-in-law for "voluntarily" going to the Senate and "being very transparent with every interaction that he's had".
Kushner will speak again with investigators today in another private session.
Donald Trump Jr and Jared Kushner called to testify to US Senate
20 July
Donald Trump's son and son-in-law have been called to testify before the US Senate over links between the presidential election campaign and the Russian government.
Donald Trump Jr will appear in a public hearing scheduled for 26 July entitled Oversight of the Foreign Agents Registration Act and Attempts to Influence US Elections: Lessons Learned from Current and Prior Administrations. Former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort will also be questioned.
The Senate intelligence committee said it expected them to "comply voluntarily with invitations to testify" and that they "have agreed to issue subpoenas, if necessary" for them.
Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner will testify in a closed session of the committee two days before. According to the Washington Post, he is not expected to invoke the Fifth Amendment protecting him against self-incrimination.
It was revealed last week that the three men met with Kremlin-linked lawyer Natalia Veselnitskaya in Trump Tower, New York, shortly after Trump won the Republican nomination. Trump Jr released an email in which it was claimed Veselnitskaya had incriminating information on Hillary Clinton.
President Trump has publicly defended his son.
Trump Jr has said he got nothing useful out of the meeting, but acknowledged he would now handle the situation differently.
Donald Trump Jr releases emails about meeting with Russian lawyer
12 July
Donald Trump Jr has released a chain of emails surrounding his meeting with a Russian lawyer he thought could help with his father's presidential election campaign.
They show the US President's eldest son believed he would be meeting a "Russian government attorney" willing to give him "very high level and sensitive information" about Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton.
"The stunning disclosure raised questions over whether campaign laws were broken and why senior Trump associates failed to report a hostile act by a foreign power," The Guardian says.
The messages unveil British-born publicist Rob Goldstone's efforts to set up a meeting between Trump Jr and a Russian government lawyer to "provide the Trump campaign with some official documents and information that would incriminate Hillary and her dealings with Russia and be very useful to your father".
Goldstone writes: "This is obviously very high level and sensitive information but is part of Russia and its government's support for Mr Trump."
Trump Jr replies: "If it's what you say I love it."
The President's son was "practically drooling at the possibility of being handed documents from the Russian government that incriminate the one person standing between his father and the White House", writes Anthony Zurcher of the BBC.
Trump Jr met Goldstone and Russian lawyer Natalia Veselnitskaya on 9 June at Trump Tower in New York, along with campaign chief Paul Manafort, Donald Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner.
Both Trump Jr and Goldstone deny that Veselnitskaya offered anything of substance, with Goldstone telling the New York Times it was "the most inane nonsense I've ever heard".
In a statement, President Trump said "My son is a high-quality person and I applaud his transparency", before referring any other questions to lawyers.
Speaking on Fox News last night, Trump Jr said he had not told his father about the meeting because "there was nothing to tell".
He added: "It was literally just a wasted 20 minutes, which was a shame."