WASHINGTON (AP) — Ivanka Trump, the daughter of former President Donald Trump and one of his relatives during the Capitol uprising, is scheduled to testify Tuesday before Jan. 1.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Ivanka Trump, the daughter of former President Donald Trump and among her loved ones during the Capitol uprising, is scheduled to testify before the January 6 commission on Tuesday, according to three people familiar with the matter.
Trump’s daughter, who was with her father much of the day, is expected to speak to the committee virtually, according to the people, who were granted anonymity to discuss it.
Ivanka Trump is one of more than 800 witnesses the committee has interviewed as it strives to compile a record of the attack, the worst on the Capitol in more than two centuries. She is the first of known Trump children to speak to the committee and one of his father’s closest people.
Her decision to cooperate is significant for the committee, which has been trying to secure an interview with her since late January. It comes less than a week after her husband, Jared Kushner, testified before the nine-member panel in a virtual meeting that lasted more than six hours. Committee members said his testimony was helpful and hope to further fill in the gaps with his help.
His testimony, like others before the committee, will be private. The panel is using the interviews to compile a comprehensive dossier and will begin releasing information in the coming months as it holds public hearings and releases a series of reports on the insurgency.
Lawmakers said they want to discuss what Ivanka Trump knew about her father’s efforts, including a phone call they say she witnessed, to pressure then-Vice President Mike Pence to reject Joe Biden’s 2020 election victory as part of his ceremonial role overseeing the voter count. Pence rejected those efforts.
The committee is also interested in any concerns it may have heard from Pence staff, members of Congress and the White House Counsel’s Office regarding Trump’s pressure on Pence.
Ivanka Trump’s cooperation contrasts with some of her father’s other top advisers, several of whom have refused to cooperate as the former president has fought the investigation. Trump has tried to exercise executive privilege over documents and interviews, but in many cases it has been overruled by the courts or Biden, who has that authority as the sitting president.
The House is expected to vote this week to recommend contempt charges against Trump advisers Peter Navarro and Dan Scavino, who the committee found were uncooperative. The committee previously voted to recommend contempt charges against longtime Trump ally Steve Bannon, who defied a congressional subpoena, and White House chief of staff Mark Meadows, who ceased cooperating with the panel.
Bannon was later indicted by a federal grand jury and awaits prosecution by the Justice Department. The Justice Department took no action against Meadows.
Other witnesses who are still close to the former president — and several who were at the White House that day — declined to answer the committee’s questions.
Mary Clare Jalonick, Lisa Mascaro and Farnoush Amiri, Associated Press