Nation/World

Jan. 6 committee seeks testimony from Ivanka Trump to discuss her father’s attempt to overturn the election results

WASHINGTON - The House committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol has requested voluntary testimony from Ivanka Trump, saying in a letter sent Thursday that witnesses have told investigators that she has direct knowledge of President Donald Trump’s actions before, during and after his supporters attempted to stop Congress from certifying Joe Biden as president that day.

The request from the committee Chairman Bennie G. Thompson, D-Miss., said the former White House aide was present when her father pressured Vice President Mike Pence to reject Biden’s victory when he presided over the electoral vote count in the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6.

“The 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 said it has information that Ivanka Trump was enlisted by other White House aides to get President Trump to call off his supporters while they were ransacking the Capitol.

In addition, Thompson said the panel wants to speak with her about what she knows about whether her father sought to deploy or block the deployment of the National Guard in response to the attack.

A fourth area the panel said is of interest is Ivanka Trump’s knowledge of what President Trump was doing in the days after the attack “including whether the President took appropriate action regarding the continuing threats of violence.”

“The Committee has information suggesting that White House staff and others were attempting to persuade President Trump to halt his statements regarding a ‘stolen election’ and were working directly with other supporters outside the White House in an effort to persuade President Trump to do so.”

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[Supreme Court denies Trump bid to withhold Jan. 6 materials from House committee]

The letter to Ivanka Trump is further evidence of how intently the panel is focusing on the former president’s role in the attack and shows that several former White House aides are voluntarily cooperating with its inquiry even as others have refused to testify.

It also marks the second time this week that Trump’s children have been targeted in a government investigation. New York Attorney General Letitia James earlier filed a motion in her ongoing inquiry in to Trump business activities. In a news release she specified that she was seeking testimony from Ivanka and Donald Trump Jr., in the case.

The question to Ms. Trump in the nine page letter were detailed, revealing information the committee has obtained from other witnesses.

For example, the letter seeks Ivanka Trump’s testimony regarding one of Trump’s phone conversations with Pence on the morning of Jan. 6.

“You were present in the Oval Office and observed at least one side of that telephone conversation,” according to the letter, which then cites testimony from former national security adviser Keith Kellogg.

The committee asked Kellogg: “It’s been reported that the President said to the Vice President . . ., “you don’t have the courage to make a hard decision.” And maynot not those exact words but something like that. Do you remember anything like that?”

“Words - and I don’t remember exactly either, but something like that, yeah,” Kellogg responded, according to the letter. “Being like you’re not tough enough to make the call.”

According to Kellogg, Ivanka Trump turned to him at the close of the call and said, “Mike Pence is a good man.”

Similar specific reference occurred at other points in the letter, such as when Ivanka Trump is asked to discuss any other conversations she witnessed or participated in regarding Trump’s plan to obstruct or impede the electoral certification.

“For example, the Committee has information suggesting that President Trump’s White House Counsel may have concluded that the actions President Trump directed Vice President Pence to take would violate the Constitution or would be otherwise illegal,” according to Thompson’s letter.

In his letter, Thompson also outlines the committee’s interest in discussions that happened “inside the White House and with the President before and after his 2:24 p.m. tweet” that slammed Pence for not having “the courage” to block the electoral vote. Testimony from Kellogg indicates that Ivanka Trump agreed to speak to the president to convince him to act to quell the violence but that she “had to make multiple efforts to persuade Trump to act.”

“He didn’t say yes to Mark Meadows or Kayleigh McEnany or Keith Kellogg, but he might say yes to his daughter?,” the committee asked Kellogg, according to Thompson’s letter.

“Exactly right,” Kellogg replied.

“And so presumably, the first time she [Ivanka Trump] went in, it wasn’t sufficient or she wouldn’t have had to go back at least one more time, I assume. Is that correct,” the committee asked Kellogg in a follow up question.

“Well, yes, Ma’am. I think she went back there because Ivanka can be pretty tenacious,” Kellogg replied.

Thompson writes that the committee is “particularly interested” in answering the question of why White Hosue staff didn’t “simply ask the President to walk to the briefing room and appear on live television - to ask the crowd to leave the Capitol?”

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In his testimony, Kellogg answered that he “very strongly recommended” against asking Trump to do so because “press conferences tend to get out of control, and you want to control the message.”

“Apparently, certain White House staff believed that a live unscripted press appearance by the President in the midst of the Capitol Hill violence could have made the situation worse,” the committee concluded from Kellogg’s testimony.

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