Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump, the former president’s daughter and son-in-law, have both been subpoenaed amid the investigations by Special Counsel Jack Smith into the circumstances of political schemes after the last presidential election to keep Donald Trump in the White House, according to The New York Times. Smith wants grand jury testimony from both.
Jared and Ivanka both supported previous bids by Donald Trump to win the White House, but they’re not involving themselves with his bid to regain the presidency this time, although Donald claimed he specifically pushed the duo not to be involved with campaigning for the 2024 race. The demands for testimony from the pair represent yet another notably forward investigative move from Smith and his team, whose work already led to a subpoena for Mike Pence, who has expressed opposition to complying with it in part on the basis of Constitutional protections that normally cover legislative officials carrying out their official duties. Pence was, of course, vice president, but he was also legally designated to lead the Congressional proceedings on January 6 and served in the procedural role known as President of the Senate.
In Smith’s other probe, which covers Trump’s handling of classified docs from his administration, investigators already took grand jury testimony from three lawyers to the ex-president, including Alina Habba, who has helped with his legal representation in prominent matters like the litigation from writer E. Jean Carroll over an incident of sexual assault Carroll says Trump perpetrated against her in the 1990s. Part of those proceedings go to trial in April. As for Jared and Ivanka, they both provided testimony to the House committee that investigated the Capitol riot, so there is a precedent for the pair actually giving answers when pressed by investigators, no matter the established trend in Trump’s circles of using something like executive privilege as an attempted escape hatch of sorts. Also subpoenaed in Smith’s investigations was Mark Meadows, who was chief of staff the day of the Capitol riot. That day, Ivanka was working at the White House and pushed her father to push back against the rioters.
