January 20, 2022

The January 6 Committee Just Asked to Speak With Ivanka Trump

The panel is closing in on Donald Trump’s inner circle.

Stefani Reynolds/Zuma

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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.

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WHO DOESN’T LOVE A POSITIVE STORY—OR TWO?

“Great journalism really does make a difference in this world: it can even save kids.”

That’s what a civil rights lawyer wrote to Julia Lurie, the day after her major investigation into a psychiatric hospital chain that uses foster children as “cash cows” published, letting her know he was using her findings that same day in a hearing to keep a child out of one of the facilities we investigated.

That’s awesome. As is the fact that Julia, who spent a full year reporting this challenging story, promptly heard from a Senate committee that will use her work in their own investigation of Universal Health Services. There’s no doubt her revelations will continue to have a big impact in the months and years to come.

Like another story about Mother Jones’ real-world impact.

This one, a multiyear investigation, published in 2021, exposed conditions in sugar work camps in the Dominican Republic owned by Central Romana—the conglomerate behind brands like C&H and Domino, whose product ends up in our Hershey bars and other sweets. A year ago, the Biden administration banned sugar imports from Central Romana. And just recently, we learned of a previously undisclosed investigation from the Department of Homeland Security, looking into working conditions at Central Romana. How big of a deal is this?

“This could be the first time a corporation would be held criminally liable for forced labor in their own supply chains,” according to a retired special agent we talked to.

Wow.

And it is only because Mother Jones is funded primarily by donations from readers that we can mount ambitious, yearlong—or more—investigations like these two stories that are making waves.

About that: It’s unfathomably hard in the news business right now, and we came up about $28,000 short during our recent fall fundraising campaign. We simply have to make that up soon to avoid falling further behind than can be made up for, or needing to somehow trim $1 million from our budget, like happened last year.

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