Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.), a member of the House committee investigating the Capitol riot, indicated to CBS’s Scott MacFarlane that he doesn’t believe that Ivanka Trump — the former president’s daughter, who served as a presidential adviser during her father’s presidential tenure — has a legitimate executive privilege claim that could keep her from testifying to investigators. As of this point, Raskin’s committee has asked Ivanka for her testimony, with panel chairperson Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.) telling Ivanka that, among other topics, committee members want to ask her about what was going on in the White House as the riot unfolded. Apparently, White House staffers tried to enlist Ivanka to help get Donald to speak out about the violence sweeping the Capitol.
“From my front row seat, I did not see a lot of legitimate political discourse,” Pence chief of staff Marc Short says on Meet the Press. He also says Trump got “a lot of bad advice” before Jan 6 and that he and Pence do have “concerns” about 2020 election.
— Josh Dawsey (@jdawsey1) February 6, 2022
Raskin told MacFarlane that he “personally [is] expecting everybody who was asked to come and testify to come and do it. And most people are doing it without a subpoena.” Ivanka hasn’t been subpoenaed, although that is still a possibility; for now, her cooperation has simply been formally requested. Besides events inside the White House on the day of the riot, investigators also want to ask Ivanka about pre-January 6 attempts to pressure then-Vice President Mike Pence to block the progression of Joe Biden’s presidential election victory while presiding over the Congressional proceedings to certify the election outcome, although Pence didn’t actually have the power to block it. Investigators would also “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,” as Thompson told Ivanka.
I will never understand why 10 more GOP Senators didn’t join with the 7 brave ones to convict Trump in Impeachment 2.0 to prevent him from holding office again (and a campaign account). It would have taken some time but it would have eventually neutered his power over the party.
— Daniel Goldman (@danielsgoldman) February 6, 2022
The U.S. Supreme Court has, of this point, rejected an argument from former President Trump that certain records of his should be kept from the riot investigation committee because of executive privilege concerns. The committee has now received hundreds of pages of these records, including items like records showing a 10-minute phone conversation between Trump and Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) on the morning of January 6. Raskin added that “if the president doesn’t have an executive privilege claim, certainly, the daughter of the former president doesn’t have an executive privilege claim… What we’ve got is the Congress and the president of the United States agreeing that there’s no executive privilege here — so everybody’s got to come and testify.” Raskin also said that committee investigators are “making tremendous progress in fleshing out the full picture of what took place on January 6,” and plans for public hearings are in development by the committee. Raskin suggested that the hearings could take place in April.
Rep. Jamie Raskin, member of the Jan. 6 Committee: "If the president doesn't have an executive privilege claim, certainly, the daughter of the former president doesn't have an executive privilege claim." https://t.co/YAr0m4JNFc
— Kyle Griffin (@kylegriffin1) February 4, 2022
