Donald Trump’s daughter and son-in-law have been introduced by special counsel Jack Smith to appear before a federal grand jury for testimony. Maggie Haberman and Michael Schmidt of the New York Times have the latest here.
Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump were reportedly forced to share their testimony about Trump’s various plans to stay in the White House after losing the election to President Biden in 2020 and his role in attacking a mob of his supporters who attacked the US Capitol on January 6. .
According to the Times, it is still unclear whether Trump will try to block his daughter and son-in-law, who were White House advisers during his administration, from taking tests claiming executive privilege. He tried that argument several times with allies called by the January 6 committee, but ultimately failed to use it to try to prevent Ivanka and Jared from sitting down for interviews with the panel.
This is the second time in recent weeks that we have learned that Smith has cited allies in Trump’s inner circle. Earlier this month, it was reported that former Trump Vice President Mike Pence had been subpoenaed to testify, which he plans to fight by arguing that he is protected by the Speech and Debate Clause of the Constitution. He reportedly intends to cling to his role as president of the Senate, a legislative branch title, to try to dodge it, rather than rely on Trump to assert executive privilege.
There are many reasons why Smith might want to hear testimony from both Kushner and Ivanka. Ivanka was with Trump throughout the day on January 6, including during his Ellipse speech and in the Oval Office when he tried to pressure Pence to block the certification of the election results.
Kushner was out of the country in the days leading up to the insurrection. He returned to Washington from the Middle East on January 6, and he and Ivanka were involved in getting Trump to record the video to stop the rioters.
But maybe Smith wants to learn more about this crucial detail:
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