Former President Donald Trump’s daughter, Ivanka Trump, testified on April 5 before the U.S. House of Representatives committee investigating the origins of the Jan. 6, 2021, breach of the U.S. Capitol.
The former senior adviser to the president testified remotely for several hours regarding the incident after declining to plead the Fifth Amendment or invoke executive privilege.
“She’s answering questions. I mean, you know, not in a broad, chatty term, but she’s answering questions,” Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.), chairman of the committee, told reporters at the Capitol on April 5.
Thompson said Ivanka Trump “came in on her own, that has obviously significant value” noting that the committee “did not have to subpoena.”
A spokesperson for Ivanka Trump didn’t respond to a request for comment by press time.
Trump’s daughter was in the West Wing of the White House on the day of the Capitol breach.
“On January 6th, you were serving as Advisor to the President and head of the White House Office of Economic Initiatives and Entrepreneurship, and were present in the West Wing of the White House,” Thompson wrote to Ivanka Trump at the time. “We write to request your voluntary cooperation with our investigation on a range of critical topics.”
Trump’s appearance before the select committee comes a week after her husband, Jared Kushner, also appeared virtually before the nine-member bipartisan committee, which includes seven Democrats.
Kushner, like his wife, also served as a senior adviser to the Trump administration and is the only other family relative to have testified before the committee.
Rep. Elaine Luria (D-Va.), a member of the committee, told MSNBC of Kushner’s attendance, “It was really valuable for us to have the opportunity to speak to him.
“He was able to voluntarily provide information to us to verify, substantiate, provide his own take on this different reporting.”
Lawmakers have accused the former president of encouraging violence at the Jan. 6, 2021, breach of the U.S. Capitol, a claim that Donald Trump strongly denies.
The House select committee has subpoenaed a number of people as part of its investigation, including former Trump national security adviser Mike Flynn, former Trump adviser Stephen Bannon, and former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows.
In January, Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) said he wouldn’t voluntarily cooperate with the select committee after they formally requested he appear and testify, calling the request “unprecedented and inappropriate.”
