The House of Representatives select committee investigating the January 6 Capitol attack has asked Ivanka Trump, daughter and advisor to former President Donald Trump, to voluntarily testify about the day’s events.
The request notes two distinct reasons why the commission is seeking her testimony.
“Ms. Trump apparently has direct knowledge of the former President’s attempt to persuade Vice President Pence to take action to stop the counting of electoral votes,” the January 6 commission wrote in a tweet on Thursday.
Beyond questions about former President Donald Trump’s plan to overturn the 2020 presidential election results, the commission also wants to ask Ivanka Trump about her father’s reaction to the violence that erupted at the Capitol on January 6.
“Given Ms. Trump’s presence in the White House on January 6th, the Select Committee is seeking her knowledge about the former President’s actions related to the deployment of the National Guard to respond to the violence,” the commission said in a press release announcing the request.
According to the letter written to Ivanka Trump from committee chair Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-Mississippi), the commission has evidence that “certain White House staff devoted time during the violent riot to rebutting questions regarding whether the President was attempting to hold up deployment of the [national] guard.”
“But the Committee has identified no evidence that President Trump issued any order, or took any other action, to deploy the guard that day,” Thompson added. “Nor does it appear that President Trump made any calls at all to the Department of Justice or any other law enforcement agency to request deployment of their personnel to the Capitol.”
The commission also has evidence, from previous testimonies, that White House staff specifically requested Ivanka Trump’s assistance to “intervene in an attempt to persuade President Trump to address the ongoing lawlessness and violence on Capitol Hill,” Thompson said.
The commission is interested in obtaining more information regarding “President Trump’s state of mind” during the Capitol attack, Thompson wrote. As Trump’s daughter, Ivanka Trump may be able to provide a deeper understanding of how the former president was reacting to the attack by his loyalists.
Ivanka Trump is the first member of the Trump family that has been asked to voluntarily discuss the Capitol attack with the January 6 commission. But the commission has also sought documents from other family members.
Earlier this week, it was announced that the commission subpoenaed and successfully obtained the phone records of Ivanka’s brother, Eric Trump. Investigators also obtained the phone records of Kimberly Guilfoyle, who worked on Trump’s campaign and who is engaged to Trump’s oldest son, Donald Trump Jr.
