Jan. 6 Panel Wants Ivanka to Discuss Trump-Pence Call

Committee asks her to sit for interview on what she saw and heard in regard to the Capitol riot
By John Johnson,  Newser Staff
Posted Jan 20, 2022 1:14 PM CST
Jan. 6 Panel Asks Ivanka to Participate
Ivanka Trump comes on stage as then-President Donald Trump speaks at a rally in January 2021.   (AP Photo/Brynn Anderson, File)

The House panel investigating the Jan. 6 Capitol riot wants Ivanka Trump to answer questions about what she saw and heard at the White House. The special committee sent Ivanka Trump a letter inviting her to sit for an interview in early February, reports the Hill. “The Committee would like to discuss any ... conversations you may have witnessed or participated in regarding the President’s plan to obstruct or impede the counting of electoral votes,” wrote chair panel Bennie Thompson. That includes a phone call the morning of Jan. 6 between her father and Vice President Mike Pence, notes the Washington Post.

“You were present in the Oval Office and observed at least one side of that telephone conversation,” says the letter, which cites testimony from former national security adviser Keith Kellogg. Kellogg told the panel that former President Trump—who wanted Pence to refuse to certify the election results—told the vice president something along the lines of "You don't have the courage to make a hard decision." Kellogg also said Ivanka Trump turned to him after the call and said, “Mike Pence is a good man.”

The panel also wants to know if Ivanka Trump tried to convince her father to tell the rioters to stop their assault on the Capitol. “Testimony obtained by the Select Committee indicates that members of the White House staff requested your assistance on multiple occasions to intervene in an attempt to persuade President Trump to address the ongoing lawlessness and violence,” the committee wrote. “We are particularly interested in this question: Why didn't the White House staff simply ask the president to walk to the briefing room and appear on live television to ask the crowd to leave the Capitol?" (More Ivanka Trump stories.)

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