Rep. Liz Cheney highlighted the former first daughter’s helpfulness during an interview in which Cheney also said it was “absolutely clear” that Trump knew his actions were “unlawful” but “did it anyway.”
Since the January 6 committee was formed last July to investigate the events surrounding the Capitol attack, a considerable percentage of Donald Trump’s supporters have refused to cooperate, deciding that they’d rather risk being charged with contempt of Congress than provide information that would undoubtedly cast the former president in a negative light. Two individuals who, surprisingly, have not followed that trend? His son-in-law and daughter, the latter of whom spent a significant amount of time last week chatting with the committee, according to Vanity.
Yes, Ivanka Trump reportedly spent nearly eight hours voluntarily testifying before a House select committee on Tuesday, following in the footsteps of Jared Kushner. While it is unclear what the former first daughter told investigators, committee vice-chair Liz Cheney stated on Sunday that Ivanka’s “testimony was helpful,” during an interview in which the Wyoming representative, who has been chastised by her Republican colleagues for speaking out against the 45th president, also stated that it was “absolutely clear” that Trump knew his actions were “unlawful” but “did it anyway.”
According to The New Republic, eight hours is a lot of time for “probing questions” and answers, and Ivanka has unique insight into what her father was up to on January 6, as well as the days leading up to it. The committee presumably now knows what she was willing to share. While Kushner—who, according to committee member Elaine Luria, provided “valuable” information during his seven-plus hours of testimony late last month—was traveling on the day of the actual attack, Ivanka was not only in the White House but reportedly pressed her father to stop the violence on at least two occasions.
The committee wrote in a letter to the former first daughter in January that she was in the Oval Office during a phone call between her father and Mike Pence on the morning of January 6, when the then-president reportedly accused his V.P. of not having “the courage” to block the certification of Biden’s victory. Keith Kellogg, a retired lieutenant general who served as Pence’s national security adviser, testified before the panel that after the president claimed Pence wasn’t “tough enough” to overturn the results, Ivanka countered that “Mike Pence is a good man.” (During the riot, Ivanka tweeted, “the violence must stop.” She also referred to those who attacked the Capitol as “American patriots” at first.)
Obviously, there’s no reason to believe Ivanka would provide the committee with information that could lead to her father, say, going to prison, but her and Kushner’s willingness to speak with the panel without invoking their Fifth Amendment rights is notable. There’s also a CNN report from June alleging that a rift had developed between the couple and the ex-president, allegedly due to the couple’s annoyance that he wouldn’t stop talking about the 2020 election.
The other thing that’s important to remember is that Jared and Ivanka’s go-to move while working in the administration was to literally flee the scene any time there was blowback over Trump doing something particularly bad, even for him, in the obvious hope that people would forget they were president’s senior advisers. So, if telling the committee what they know, even if it means upsetting Ivanka’s dear old father, would help them? That appears to be something they’d be happy to do.
