CNN Exclusive: Ivanka Trump talked to January 6 committee about what was happening

CNN
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The Trump family’s cooperation with the House select committee investigating the January 6, 2021, attack on the US Capitol – and Ivanka Trump’s appearance in particular – has proven useful in confirming other key testimony about the state of play inside the White House as well as then-President Donald Trump’s state of mind that day.

In a recent exclusive interview with CNN, committee Chairman Bennie Thompson gave the most extensive account yet of the testimony behind closed doors.

“There were questions asked about what was she doing at the time that the insurrection was occurring at the Capitol, and she told us,” the Mississippi Democrat said of Ivanka Trump. Investigators “asked certain questions about her awareness of what her father was doing. She told us.”

While Thompson was careful to point out that Donald Trump’s daughter and son-in-law Jared Kushner did not give away any “trade secrets,” and that their testimony was not against Trump himself, he said the couple did corroborate critical testimony from others who said the then-President was reluctant to try to call off the rioters despite being asked to do so.

“They kinda supported the fact that the President was told he had to do something to stop the January 6 insurrection. That he had to be public with it; he had to be direct,” Thompson said. “So in that respect … we have been able to systematically, with our depositions and interviewing of other witnesses, we’ve been able to fill in a lot of the gaps.”

The committee heard evidence from more than one witness, including former Vice President Mike Pence’s national security adviser Keith Kellogg, who said Ivanka Trump was sometimes with her father as he watched the riot unfold on TV in a room off the Oval Office. Such testimony is key, especially with an hours-long gap in the presidential daily diary during that period on January 6.

A person close to the Trump family told CNN the former President’s children never saw a reason not to cooperate with the committee because none of them felt appearing before the panel put them at any risk. They also perceived the committee’s decision not to subpoena them as a sign that they weren’t walking into a contentious situation.

This person also noted that Kushner was traveling in the Middle East on January 6, 2021, and got Covid-19 upon return, adding that he wasn’t involved in planning the “Stop the Steal” rally or in communication with some of the fringe figures who were counseling his father-in-law on ways to overturn the election.

Ivanka Trump and Kushner did not invoke the Fifth Amendment or claim privilege during their interviews, according to two sources familiar with the matter.

A representative for Ivanka Trump and Kushner did not respond to a request for comment.

Thompson’s description of the importance of this family testimony reflects a curious evolving pattern of some top advisers to the former President refusing to share with the committee what they witnessed of Trump, while key family members – some of whom were also top White House aides – go ahead and talk to the committee.

In addition to Ivanka Trump and Kushner, Donald Trump Jr. is expected to testify, and he and the committee are working to schedule his appearance. His fiancée, Kimberly Guilfoyle, spoke to the committee last month.

In his interview with CNN, Thompson questioned why the former President did not object to his family members testifying while key White House aides are now being held in contempt of Congress by the House after refusing to testify, saying they had been instructed by the President to claim executive privilege over their conversations.

“Now we have four individuals who are being held in contempt of Congress because they were directed by the President not to come. So they are under the bus, but his children are not. They came,” Thompson said. “Now to me, that’s Donald Trump that we are discovering. It’s ‘do as I say, but not do as I do.’ Do you understand? I say don’t go and testify, but when my children or my in-laws are involved, you can go testify.”

Thompson said he was unaware of whether the family members sought permission from the former President to talk to the committee or spoke with him beforehand.

“I just know that if the children went and the others didn’t because he told them not to go, based on their own accounting, that’s just suspicious,” Thompson said. “I think it’s ironic that he would tell some people not to come and they follow his direction and get held in contempt of Congress,” while his children do the opposite. “So, I mean, that’s kind of who he is.”