Capitol riot inquiry calls Ivanka Trump to testify first

The committee investigating the January 6 attack last year has summoned the former president’s daughter as the inquiry continues to tighten around his inner circle.

Hugh Tomlinson

Ivanka Trump. Picture: AFP

less than 2 min read

10:09AMJanuary 21, 2022.

Updated 12:24PMJanuary 21, 2022

The committee investigating the January 6 attack on the US Capitol last year has summoned Ivanka Trump, Donald Trump’s daughter and a former White House adviser, as the inquiry continues to tighten around the former president’s inner circle.

The letter to Ivanka Trump, 40, from the committee yesterday (Thursday) is the first to be issued to a member of the former president’s family in relation to the riot, when Trump supporters stormed the Capitol to halt certification of Joe Biden’s election victory. The move follows the recent revelation that the panel had evidence that Ivanka had pleaded with her father to intervene and stop the violence.

As well as the letter to Ivanka, there were further developments in relation to a possible criminal investigation of Trump over his efforts to overturn his defeat to Biden.

A district attorney in Georgia has asked a special grand jury to investigate the former president’s bid to reverse the 2020 election result in the state. In an infamous phone call to the Georgia secretary of state Brad Raffensperger Trump was recorded pressuring him to “find” enough votes to swing the result in his favour.

Supporters of US president Donald Trump during the riots last year.. Picture: AFP

In the letter to Ivanka, Bennie Thompson, the Democrat chair of the investigating committee, said that the president’s daughter was in the Oval Office on the morning of January 6 and witnessed her father pressuring Mike Pence, the vice-president, to halt certification of the election result in Congress that afternoon.

Thompson said the committee had evidence that desperate Trump allies turned to his daughter to urge her father to call off his supporters.

“Staff recognised that you may be the only person who could persuade him to act,” Thompson wrote.

Ivanka did not immediately comment on whether she would comply with the committee’s request.

The Times