Ivanka Trump, daughter of former President Donald Trump, and her husband, Jared Kushner, both of whom served as advisers to the former president during his single term in office, have been subpoenaed by Department of Justice (DOJ) special counsel Jack Smith, who is investigating Trump’s attempt to overturn the 2020 presidential election.
That investigation encompasses, among other items, the January 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol building, as well as the Trump campaign’s efforts to use fake electors to upend the Electoral College certification process in order to reinstall Trump for a second term, despite his loss to President Joe Biden.
The subpoenas for Ivanka Trump and Kushner, which were first reported on by The New York Times, come on the heels of a subpoena issued to Trump’s former vice president, Mike Pence, just weeks ago.
The recently issued subpoenas are “the latest sign that no potential high-level witness is off limits,” The Times reported.
While Pence has indicated that he plans to oppose the subpoena order, it’s unclear as of yet whether Ivanka Trump or Kushner will do the same. However, the two did agree to testify before the January 6 House committee, providing insight into Donald Trump’s actions in the days leading up to and on the day of the Capitol attack.
It’s also possible that Trump will sue to prevent his daughter and son-in-law from testifying, citing his executive privilege in doing so. Even if privilege claims no longer apply now that Trump is out of the White House, the effort could still delay the process for several months.
Notably, Ivanka Trump was present with her father in the Oval Office as he was trying to persuade Pence to agree to the fake electors scheme. She was also present at the January 6 rally near the White House in which Donald Trump told a crowd of his loyalists, many of whom would go on to take part in the Capitol attack, that they couldn’t take back the country without “strength.”
Smith will likely want Ivanka Trump and Kushner’s perspective on Donald Trump’s motivations for sending his loyalists to the Capitol as the Electoral College certification was set to take place. Both Ivanka Trump and Kushner claimed in their January 6 committee depositions that they tried to convince Trump to instruct his followers to leave the Capitol after the attack began, which he refused to do for several hours.
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