Ivanka Trump is reportedly in talks with the House Jan. 6 Select Committee about potentially sitting for an interview with the panel, according to the New York Times and CNN.
Aides reportedly described the negotiations with Trump’s eldest daughter as preliminary. It is currently unclear whether she would provide information for the panel’s investigation into the events surrounding last year’s deadly Capitol insurrection or whether the talks are a stalling tactic.
Ivanka Trump’s reported talks with the Committee comes a month after the panel sent a letter to her asking for her voluntary cooperation. Committee Chair Bennie Thompson (D-MS) concluded the panel’s letter to Ivanka Trump by asking to meet with her “soon,” proposing several dates in early February at the time.
The Committee’s lengthy letter to the former president’s eldest daughter indicated that the panel wants to ask her about discussions she may have had with her father about his legal liability for the Jan. 6 attack.
Ivanka Trump was among several of her father’s aides who unsuccessfully tried to persuade the then-President to call off the violence that ensued when a mob of his supporters breached the Capitol on the day of the joint session of Congress certifying Joe Biden’s electoral victory. The Committee’s letter to her suggested that on the day of the insurrection, White House staffers recognized that Ivanka Trump “may be the only person who could persuade (then-President Trump) to act.” The letter said that Gen. Keith Kellogg, then-Vice President Mike Pence’s national security adviser, told lawmakers in his testimony that Ivanka Trump repeatedly went to the Oval Office as the insurrection unfolded.
“The Committee has information suggesting that President Trump’s White House Counsel may have concluded that the actions President Trump directed Vice President Pence to take would violate the Constitution or would be otherwise illegal,” the letter read.
Ivanka Trump’s lawyers have reportedly been in talks with the Committee since last month. The former president’s daughter has yet to commit to a date when she might speak with the Committee’s investigators. The panel has not made a threat of an imminent subpoena, according to the Times.
People in Ivanka Trump’s inner circle told the Times that she has no interest in taking the approach that former Trump White House chief strategist Steve Bannon did with the Committee. Bannon defied the Committee’s subpoena and was slapped with contempt charges by the House last year.
“Ivanka Trump is in discussions with the committee to voluntarily appear for an interview,” a spokeswoman for Ivanka Trump confirmed in a statement to the Times on Wednesday.
Unlike private discussions with his other former aides, the former president has not asked his eldest daughter to defy the Committee’s requests. People familiar with Ivanka Trump’s thinking told the Times that she would be unlikely to make any move that her father wouldn’t be aware and approve of.
Ivanka Trump’s private discussions with the Committee comes on the heels of Rudy Giuliani’s talks with the panel about potentially testifying. Earlier this month, the Times reported that it’s unclear what Giuliani might provide and that negotiations are in flux as the former president continues to attack the committee’s investigation in a series of rants.
