Lawmakers investigating Capitol attack call Ivanka Trump to testify
Washington, Jan 20 (EFE).- The House of Representatives commission investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, assault on the US Capitol on Thursday called Ivanka Trump, the daughter and adviser to former President Donald Trump, to testify so that lawmakers can question her about the ex-president’s activities before and during that tragic and deadly day.
The committee said in its letter to Ivanka Trump that it “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.”
In a press release, the committee said that Ivanka’s “role and actions on January 6th as the riot was underway at the Capitol are also a key focus for the Select Committee.”
According to information collected by members of the commission, Ivanka Trump was in the Oval Office when President Trump called then-Vice President Mike Pence to demand that he sign on to his plan to stop Congress from certifying then-President-elect Joe Biden’s November 2020 election victory.
As the commission said in its letter to the ex-president’s daughter, she was “present in the Oval Office and observed at least one side of that telephone conversation,” adding that the committee “wishes to discuss the part of the conversation you observed.”
In addition, several White House officials on “multiple occasions” turned to Ivanka Trump to try and get her to dissuade her father from his plans and issue a call to the mob of his supporters who were violently assaulting security forces at the Capitol to cease their attack.
The committee said that it has not identified evidence that the former president issued any order or made any other move to deploy the National Guard to the Capitol.
Five people died during the attack and about 140 security officers were assaulted by the mob, with some of them being severely injured.
The commission was created by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and is made up of a majority of Democratic congressman, although there are two Republican members – Liz Cheney and Adam Kinzinger – who are severely at odds with former President Trump.
Last Tuesday, the committee called four former Trump allies to testify, including former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani.
If they refuse to appear before the committee, they could be declared in contempt of Congress, just as the committee did with three other former Trump collaborators: the ex-president’s Cabinet chief, Mark Meadows; former aide to the US attorney general, Jeffrey Clark; and Trump’s ex-advisor and former campaign chief Steve Bannon, who is also facing criminal charges.
The US Supreme Court on Wednesday rejected a request by Trump to keep classified some 700 documents regarding the assault on the Capitol, a move that opens the door to having those documents turned over to the committee by the National Archives, where they are currently housed.
EFE er/afs/rrt/bp
