The special House committee investigating the Capitol attack is seeking the cooperation of former President Donald Trump's daughter Ivanka Trump, who lawmakers said witnessed attempts to persuade then-Vice President Mike Pence to intervene in the certification of Joe Biden's election.
"Ms. Trump apparently has direct knowledge of the former President’s attempt to persuade Vice President Pence to take action to stop the counting of electoral votes," Chairman Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., said in a statement, seeking a voluntary interview.
"As January 6th approached, President Trump attempted on multiple occasions to persuade Vice President Pence to participate in his plan. One of the President’s discussions with the Vice President occurred by phone on the morning of January 6th. You were present in the Oval Office and observed at least one side of that telephone conversation.”
The panel's request comes a day after the Supreme Court cleared the way for the transfer of hundreds of Trump White House documents that the former president had sought to shield from House investigators.
Thompson's request to the president's daughter focused heavily on her contacts and proximity to the president during the Capitol siege and in the hours leading up to it, saying that "Ms. Trump's role and actions on January 6th as the riot was underway at the Capitol are also a key focus for the Select Committee."
“The 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,” Thompson wrote.
“Testimony obtained by the Committee indicates that members of the White House staff requested your assistance on multiple occasions to intervene in an attempt to persuade President Trump to address the ongoing lawlessness and violence on Capitol Hill.”
Rep. Liz Cheney, R-Wyo., said earlier this month that the committee had firsthand knowledge that Ivanka Trump repeatedly urged her father to call off the mob.
The committee also claimed that the former president's daughter, who served as a senior aide in the White House, may have been privy to information about the delayed deployment of the National Guard to the Capitol, as rioters overwhelmed police.
“The Committee is aware that certain White House staff devoted time during the violent riot to rebutting questions regarding whether the President was attempting to hold up deployment of the guard," Thompson wrote. "But the Committee has identified no evidence that President Trump issued any order, or took any other action, to deploy the guard that day.
"Nor does it appear that President Trump made any calls at all to the Department of Justice or any other law enforcement agency to request deployment of their personnel to the Capitol."
Separately, Thompson said Ivanka Trump may have knowledge about the White House campaign to overturn to the 2020 election by advancing false claims of election fraud.
“The Committee has information suggesting that White House staff and others were attempting to persuade President Trump to halt his statements regarding a ‘stolen election’ and were working directly with other supporters outside the White House in an effort to persuade President Trump to do so," Thompson said.
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