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In a letter sent Thursday, the House select committee investigating the January 6 attack on the US Capitol requested the voluntary cooperation of Ivanka Trump, a notable escalation in the panel’s attempts to interview Donald Trump’s closest allies and family members.
The committee cited reports that the former first daughter had pushed the then-president to intervene as his supporters stormed the Capitol. Some of those rioters chanted “Hang Mike Pence” after the vice president refused to comply with Trump’s demand that he attempt to overturn the results of the election.
“The Select Committee wishes to discuss the part of the conversation you observed between President Trump and Vice President Mike Pence on the morning of January 6th,” the letter released Thursday read. “Similarly, the Select Committee would like to discuss any other conversations you may have witnessed or participated in regarding the President’s plan to obstruct or impede the counting of electoral votes.”
The letter echoes remarks from Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.), who, in an interview last month, said that the committee had firsthand testimony claiming that Ivanka Trump had urged her father to instruct his supporters to leave the Capitol and end the violence.
“We know as [Donald Trump] was sitting there in the dining room, next to the Oval Office, members of his staff were pleading with him to go on television to tell people to stop,” Cheney told ABC News, adding that the committee had been told “that his daughter Ivanka went in at least twice to ask him to please stop this violence.”
The letter on Thursday also revealed that the committee may possess information suggesting that Donald Trump’s own White House counsel may have concluded that the actions Trump wanted Pence to take would have been unconstitutional or illegal. The request for Ivanka’s testimony comes on the heels of the committee subpoenaing Rudy Giuliani, along with three other members of Trump’s legal team, earlier this week over their roles in pushing false conspiracy theories about the 2020 presidential election.
