Close advisor to her father
Capitol committee wants to question Ivanka Trump
01/20/2022, 8:39 p.m
When hundreds of supporters of the ousted US President stormed the Capitol in Washington in January 2021, Ivanka Trump was at her father’s side. How did she perceive the events at the time? What contribution did it make to de-escalation? MPs want to ask her these and other questions soon.
The investigative committee into the storming of the US Capitol wants to interview former President Donald Trump’s daughter, Ivanka Trump, as a witness. The 40-year-old was in “direct contact” with her father at “key moments” that day, said committee chairman Bennie Thompson of the Democratic Party. Ivanka Trump is the first of the former head of state’s relatives to be addressed by the panel.
Those involved are hoping for information from Trump about the processes and talks in the White House surrounding the attack on the seat of the US Congress a year ago, according to the House of Representatives Committee. She may also have information about the Republican’s efforts to undermine Democrat Joe Biden’s election victory, it said. It’s about her father’s alleged attempts to persuade his deputy Mike Pence to block certification of the Biden victory. Thompson wrote in a letter to Ivanka Trump that she overheard a phone call from her father to Pence on the subject in the Oval Office on the morning of January 6, 2021.
Also of particular interest is Ivanka Trump’s knowledge and involvement in discussions at the White House after the violent storming of the Capitol began, the committee said. Testimonies suggested that she was asked to influence her father and urge him to publicly condemn his followers’ violence. A testimony made under oath also indicates that Trump spoke to her father several times for this reason. The committee is also “particularly interested” in the question of why Donald Trump did not appear live in front of the cameras afterwards, but addressed the nation with a pre-recorded video message, it said.
The committee did not subpoena Ivanka Trump, but asked her to cooperate with the panel voluntarily. Trump suggested February 3rd or 4th as the date. The hearings of the panel are usually not open to the public.
After an inciting speech by Trump, his supporters stormed the seat of Congress in the capital Washington on January 6, 2021 to prevent confirmation of Biden’s election victory. The attack killed five people and injured dozens. The attack on the heart of US democracy shook the country.
The committee of inquiry set up by the House of Representatives is to clarify the exact background of the attack. The panel has already summoned several key figures close to Trump, most recently his former attorney Rudy Giuliani. Ivanka Trump is often referred to as Donald Trump’s favorite child. During her father’s presidency, she served as an official White House aide. Her husband Jared Kushner was also a key Trump advisor.