Messages from Trump allies on assault on Capitol Hill 6:40
(CNN) --
The Trump family's cooperation with the House select committee investigating the January 6, 2021 storming of the US Capitol has proven helpful.
Ivanka Trump's appearance in particular has helped investigators confirm other key accounts of the situation inside the White House, as well as then-President Donald Trump's state of mind that day.
In a recent exclusive interview with CNN, commission chairman Bennie Thompson gave the longest account yet of the closed-door testimony.
“There were questions about what she (Ivanka Trump) was doing at the time the assault on Capitol Hill was happening, and she told us,” the Mississippi Democrat said of Ivanka Trump.
Investigators "asked certain questions about what her father was doing that day. She told us."
OPINION |
Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner go their own way on January 6
While Thompson was careful to point out that Donald Trump's daughter and son-in-law Jared Kushner did not reveal any "individual secrets" and that their testimony was not against Trump himself, the Democratic representative said the pair corroborated Trump's critical testimony. other witnesses who said the then president was reluctant to try to stop the rioters even though he was asked to do so.
advertising
"They kind of supported the fact that the president was told that he had to do something to stop the insurrection on January 6. He had to go public, he had to be direct," Thompson said.
"So in that sense ... we've been able to systematically, with our statements and interviews of other witnesses, fill in a lot of the gaps."
The commission heard testimony 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 riots on television in a room next to the Office. Oval.
Such testimony is key, especially with an hour-long gap in the presidential diary during that period on January 6.
Both Ivanka Trump and other family members cooperate while some advisers refuse to do so
A person close to the Trump family told CNN that the former president's children never saw a reason not to cooperate with the commission because none of them felt appearing before the panel put them at risk.
They also perceived the commission's decision not to summon them as a sign that they were not entering a contentious situation.
This person also noted that Jared Kushner was traveling through the Middle East on January 6, 2021 and contracted covid-19 upon return, adding that he was not involved in planning the "Stop the Steal" rally or communicating with some of the fringe figures who were advising his father-in-law on ways to nullify the election.
Ivanka Trump and Kushner did not invoke the Fifth Amendment or claim privileges 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 words about the importance of this family testimony reflect a curious evolving pattern of some of the former president's top advisers refusing to share with the commission what they witnessed from Trump, while key family members, some of whom They were also top White House advisers, they agreed to speak before the commission.
In addition to Ivanka Trump and Kushner, Donald Trump Jr. is expected to testify, and he and the commission are working to schedule his appearance.
His fiancée, Kimberly Guilfoyle, spoke before the commission 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 talks.
"Now we have four people who are being held in contempt of Congress because the former president ordered them not to come. So they are at risk, but their children are not. They did," Thompson said.
“Now, to me, that is the Donald Trump that we are discovering.
It's 'do what I say, but don't do what I do'.
You understand?
I say don't go testify, but when my kids or in-laws are involved, they can go testify."
New Audio Reveals McCarthy's Claim That Trump Admitted Some Responsibility For Capitol Raid
Commission of January 6 studies new audios of legislator McCarthy 5:14
Thompson said he did not know if the family members asked the former president for permission to speak with the commission or spoke with him beforehand.
"I just know that if the kids went and the others didn't because he told them not to go, based on what he said, that's suspicious," Thompson said.
"I think it's ironic that he tells some people not to come and follow his instructions and be held in contempt of Congress," while his children do the opposite. "So that's who he is."
The Biden White House has uniformly refused to assert executive privilege from former White House aides, including Kushner and Ivanka Trump.
Donald Trump told The Washington Post that he had offered the couple "privileges" if they wanted it, but they refused.
The former president also called his daughter's eight-hour interview "shameful and harassing."
In a statement to CNN, Trump spokesman Taylor Budowich said: "This commission has been exposed as partisan hackers who have manipulated and edited evidence, while selectively leaking testimony to sell their rogue political agenda. To make matters worse things, their allies in the media agree, repeating half-truths and Democratic talking points as gospel."
Former top Trump aides Steve Bannon, Mark Meadows, Dan Scavino and Peter Navarro have been charged by the House with contempt of Congress for withholding information from the commission.
Bannon, the only one to face criminal contempt charges so far, has linked his podcast brand, in part, to supporting Trump.
However, several other advisers to the former president have come forward for lengthy interviews, including Guilfoyle, administration official Stephen Miller and even top White House lawyers.
Thompson has said the commission is open to subpoenaing the former president if necessary.
New major clashes between the commission and the former president have been minimal since Trump lost his bid to hide secret documents from his White House, and Trump's lawyers have had a relatively messy approach to how White House witnesses should be handled. according to several people familiar with the commission's conversations with key witnesses.
First on CNN: The suicide of a Washington police officer, days after the assault on Capitol Hill, was declared a death in the line of duty after months of struggle by his widow
Messages from Trump allies reveal attempts to ignore the election 2:27
What happened to Ivanka Trump in the White House on January 6
According to text message logs, reviewed by CNN, that Meadows provided to the commission, both Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner were part of a group text message chain on November 5, 2020, in which Ivanka Trump told the White House and his campaign colleagues: "You are all WARRIORS of epic proportions! Keep the faith and keep fighting!"
On January 6, 2021, Ivanka Trump wrote a tweet, which she later deleted, calling the agitators "patriots."
But gradually, he has moved away from any open support for the Capitol stormers and false claims of voter fraud.
The testimony of Kellogg, Vice President Pence's adviser, before the House committee described the important role Ivanka Trump played on January 6, calling her "heroic."
Kellogg recalled going to speak to her father at the White House "because Ivanka Trump can be quite tenacious. And I think she went back on more than one occasion to try and get a sense of what was going on. And I think she just... ... that's my experience, that's his nature," Kellogg testified.
"Ivanka could bring the raw truth to a problem. And I thought if there was any adviser in the White House in four years who could talk to her father as a father, it was Ivanka. It wasn't Jared. It wasn't me. It wasn't anyone. It was a father's daughter," Kellogg testified.
"So I knew she was the holding card."
Kellogg noted that Ivanka Trump had more influence with her father than other staff members for one reason in particular: "We don't have the same blood."
The text chain group, first reported by CNN, also included campaign aides Bill Stepien and Jason Miller, along with advisers Hope Hicks, Meadows and Scavino.
On Dec. 4, in one of the few messages Meadows received from Kushner, Trump's son-in-law shared a fact check on one of Georgia's most high-profile voter fraud claims.
The article showed that despite incendiary claims that poll workers hid suitcases full of ballots under a table, that did not, in fact, occur.
And on January 6, Miller wrote to Kushner, Meadows and Scavino that although "I did not fully agree with the election result and the facts confirm to me...there will be an orderly transition on January 20 nonetheless."
Kushner responded at 10:10 pm that night: "Why don't we post on his Facebook page since he's not blocked there..."
Thompson also confirmed to CNN that the commission knows from multiple sources that Trump was "told by multiple people that he had lost the election ... and he just refused to accept it ... I think he wanted all hell to break loose." .
-- Jamie Gangel, Katelyn Polantz, Ryan Nobles and Zachary Cohen contributed to this story.
Assault on CapitolIvanka Trump
