Ivanka Trump, senior adviser to President Trump, Jared Kushner, senior White House adviser, and their children arrive to a farewell ceremony at Joint Base Andrews ahead of the inauguration of President Joe Biden. File Photo Stefani Reynolds/UPI |
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Jan. 20 (UPI) -- The chairman of the House committee investigating the January 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol said Thursday the panel will ask Ivanka Trump to testify voluntarily.
"You will anticipate the committee inviting some people to come talk to us," Rep. Bennie Thompson, D-Miss. told reporters in the Capitol, Axios reported.
"Not lawmakers right now -- Ivanka Trump," Thompson added.
The January 6th Committee said it has evidence she "was in direct contact with the former President on Jan 6th," and she may have "direct knowledge of the former President's attempt to persuade Vice President [Mike] Pence to take action to stop the counting of electoral votes."
Thompson said in a letter to former President Donald Trump's eldest daughter, who served as a top White house adviser, that rather than respecting court rulings or the outcome of the Electoral College vote, Trump planned to enlist Pence to "unilaterally reject certain states' votes" to change the outcome of the 2020 election.
The panel was seeking her voluntary cooperation with the investigation in four specific areas, according to the letter.
First, the panel seeks her testimony on conversations about plans to impede the counting of electoral votes, including discussions between Trump and Pence on the morning of January 6, 2021, where Trump urged Pence to go along with the plan to change the election results.
Second, it seeks her testimony regarding discussions inside the White House and with her father after his 2:24 p.m. tweet on the day of the riot that scolded Pence for not going along with the plan.
"Mike Pence didn't have the courage to do what should have been done to protect our country and our constitution, giving states a chance to certify a corrected set of facts," Trump tweeted at 2:24 pm.
The 2:24 p.m. tweet fired up an "already riotous crowd," Thompson said in the letter.
Third, the panel asked her to share any information she may have on whether or not her father deployed the National Guard to respond to the violence on January 6, 2021.
Thompson cited Acting Secretary Chris Miller's testimony under oath that the president never issued him any order to deploy the National Guard as part of its concern.
Fourth, the panel seeks her testimony regarding her father's action in response to continuing threats of violence after January 6, including efforts by White House staff to persuade him to halt his statements regarding a "stolen election," and to persuade him not to associate with certain people.
The letter proposed meeting with Ivanka Trump in early February to discuss these matters.
The Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol delayed certification of the 2020 presidential race results, and left five people dead, including four people killed on that day and a fifth, Capitol Police Officer Brian Sicknick, who died the following day.
The riot also injured 150 police officers and four additional Capitol Police officers on duty that day have since died by suicide.
Earlier this month, Rep. Liz Cheney, R-Wyo., said the panel had received "firsthand testimony" that members of Trump's family had asked him to call for an end to the violence.
"We have firsthand testimony that his daughter Ivanka went in at least twice to ask him to please stop the violence," Cheney said.
Last week, Thompson asked House Republican leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., to voluntarily cooperate with the investigation.
McCarthy told a local news outlet in his district that he was in communication with Trump while the Capitol riot was underway and urged him to "get help" to the Capitol, Thompson said in a letter to McCarthy, citing The Bakersfield Californian.
Since then, McCarthy has refused to cooperate with the committee's investigation, brushing it off as "pure politics," ABC News reported.
Reps. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, and Scott Perry, R-Pa. have also declined committee requests to meet with the panel.
On Wednesday, the Supreme Court rejected former president Trump's request to block the release of records from his White House from the Jan. 6 committee, which cleared the way for the release of more than 700 documents related to the Capitol attack.