WASHINGTON DC — The Senate judiciary committee will drop its subpoena of former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort, a source familiar with the matter told CNN on Tuesday, hours after the committee announced its subpoenas.
The two sides have agreed to continue talking, and he will no longer be compelled to appear at a hearing the panel is holding Wednesday, the source said.
Manafort, a New Britain native, also met behind closed doors Tuesday morning with the Senate intelligence committee, Manafort’s spokesman Jason Maloni told CNN.
“Paul Manafort met this morning, by previous agreement, with the bipartisan staff of the Senate Intelligence Committee and answered their questions fully,” Maloni said in a statement.
Manafort also provided documents to the intelligence committee, according to a source briefed on the interview.
The Senate intelligence committee is one of several congressional panels investigating Russian interference in the US election last year. Another is the Senate judiciary committee, which has sought testimony from Manafort and President Donald Trump’s eldest son.
The chairman and top Democrat of the Senate intelligence committee have offered to share a transcript of the interview with the leaders of the Senate judiciary committee.
In announcing the subpoenas earlier, Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, and the top Democrat on the panel, California’s Dianne Feinstein, issued a joint statement Tuesday saying that Manafort and the top members of the committee were “unable to reach an agreement for a voluntary transcribed interview with the Judiciary Committee.”
“(A) subpoena was issued to compel Mr. Manafort’s participation in Wednesday’s hearing,” the two senators said. “As with other witnesses, we may be willing to excuse him from Wednesday’s hearing if he would be willing to agree to production of documents and a transcribed interview, with the understanding that the interview would not constitute a waiver of his rights or prejudice the committee’s right to compel his testimony in the future.”
This story has been updated to reflect additional reporting related to when Manafort met with the Senate intelligence committee.
