Ivanka Trump Testifies Before Jan. 6 Panel

'She's answering questions,' says House committee's chairman
By Arden Dier,  Newser Staff
Posted Feb 24, 2022 10:30 AM CST
Updated Apr 5, 2022 7:45 PM CDT
Ivanka Trump Confirms Talks With Jan. 6 Panel
Ivanka Trump, daughter and adviser to then-President Donald Trump, waves to supporters during a campaign event Nov. 2, 2020, at the Iowa State Fairgrounds in Des Moines.   (AP Photo/Charlie Neibergall, File)

Update: Ivanka Trump, who spent much of Jan. 6, 2021 with father Donald Trump, testified Tuesday before the House panel investigating the Capitol riot. Sources tell Reuters that the former senior White House adviser testified for around eight hours. Her husband, Jared Kushner, spoke to the panel last week. "She's answering questions. I mean, you know, not in a broad, chatty term, but she's answering questions," said Democratic Rep. Benny Thompson, the panel's chairman. He noted that she agreed to speak to the committee and did not have to be subpoenaed. Our original story from Feb. 24 follows:

Former White House senior adviser Ivanka Trump has confirmed she's in talks with the Jan. 6 investigating committee about sitting down to discuss what her father was thinking in the hours surrounding the insurrection at the Capitol. "Ivanka Trump is in discussions with the committee to voluntarily appear for an interview," a spokesperson for Trump said Wednesday, per CNN. The preliminary discussions began in January when the House panel requested her voluntary appearance, per the New York Times. Her cooperation would be a "major win" for the panel, per Politico. Sources tell the Times she doesn't plan to follow Steve Bannon into contempt of Congress charges. However, some committee aides believe the discussions may only be a stalling tactic.

There's been no threat of a subpoena yet "in part because members of the panel view [Trump] as a central witness in their inquiry and worry about a public backlash if it is seen as too aggressive with the former president's family members," the Times notes. The committee, promising to limit questions to events directly related to Jan. 6, has already informed Trump of testimony from former national security adviser Keith Kellogg, who said Trump urged her father, then-President Donald Trump, to condemn the violence and was witness to a Jan. 6 phone call in which he pressured his vice president to refuse to certify the 2020 election results. According to the Times, Donald Trump has "not requested that his daughter defy the committee's requests, as he has done with his other former top aides." (More Ivanka Trump stories.)

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