Jan. 6 panel wants to talk to Ivanka Trump : NPR
Former President Donald Trump and daughter Ivanka Trump walk to Marine One on the South Lawn of the White House on Jan. 4, 2020.
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Former President Donald Trump and daughter Ivanka Trump walk to Marine One on the South Lawn of the White House on Jan. 4, 2020.
Drew Angerer/Getty Images
The Democratic-led House committee looking at the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol is seeking Ivanka Trump’s voluntary cooperation with its investigation.
The committee sent a letter Thursday to the former first daughter and senior adviser to then-President Trump. “We respect your privacy, and our questions will be limited to issues relating to January 6th, the activities that contributed to or influenced events on January 6th, and your role in the White House during that period,” the committee wrote.
The committee has proposed a meeting date of Feb. 3 or 4, or during the week of Feb. 7.
This request comes a day after NPR confirmed the committee had requested phone records from family member Eric Trump and Kimberly Guilfoyle, who is engaged to Donald Trump, Jr.
It’s also a strong indication that the committee is moving its investigation into the former president’s inner circle.
This is the first voluntary ask of a Trump family member. The committee has asked sitting Republican lawmakers to cooperate, but those asks have been rebuffed.
Committee Chairman Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., had hinted earlier this month that Ivanka Trump was someone the panel would want to talk to.
What the committee wants to learn from Ivanka Trump
The committee has outlined four areas of interest. The first: learning more about her father’s attempts to impede the electoral count in Congress. The letter quotes testimony from other witnesses, as well as text messages on this issue.
“The Select Committee wishes to discuss the part of the conversation you observed between President Trump and Vice President Mike Pence on the morning of January 6th. Similarly, the Select Committee would like to discuss any other conversations you may have witnessed or participated in regarding the President’s plan to obstruct or impede the counting of electoral votes,” Thompson wrote.
The committee also wants to learn about the former president’s response to the attack on the Capitol. The committee has reports from several people they’ve already interviewed indicating White House staff “requested your assistance on multiple occasions” to get then-President Trump to address what was happening. “You have knowledge bearing directly on the President’s actions or inaction on January 6th, and his state of mind as the violent attack occurred at the Capitol,” Thompson wrote.
Related to this, the committee wants to learn what role former President Trump played in the order to deploy the National Guard to the Capitol and has asked Ivanka Trump to share any information she may have on this topic.
The committee is also looking into what the former president did in the days after the Jan. 6 attack, in particular, any attempts by staff to stop Trump from talking about a stolen election.
For example, the letter points to texts sent by Fox News personality Sean Hannity to former Trump spokesperson Kayleigh McEnany laying out a five-point approach to conversations with the former president that included “no more stolen election talk.”
“The Select Committee would like to discuss this effort after January 6th to persuade President Trump not to associate himself with certain people, and to avoid further discussion regarding election fraud allegations,” Thompson…
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