Kushner, Ivanka subpoenaed in Jan. 6 riot probe
Former President Donald J. Trump’s daughter Ivanka and his son-in-law, Jared Kushner, have been subpoenaed by the special counsel to testify before a federal grand jury about Trump’s efforts to stay in power after he lost the 2020 election and his role in a pro-trump mob’s attack on the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, according to two people briefed on the matter.
The decision by the special counsel, Jack Smith, to subpoena Ivanka Trump and Kushner underscores how deeply into the former president’s inner circle Smith is reaching, and is the latest sign that no potential highlevel witness is off limits.
The disclosure about the subpoena comes two weeks after it was revealed that Smith had subpoenaed former Vice President Mike Pence to testify before the grand jury. Pence plans to fight the subpoena, invoking his role as the president of the Senate to argue that it violates the “speech or debate” clause of the Constitution.
It is unclear whether Trump will seek to block Ivanka and Kushner from testifying on the grounds of executive privilege, as he has tried with some other witnesses. Both served as White House officials in the Trump administration. Trump declined to try to stop them from testifying before the House special committee that investigated the Jan. 6 attack and what led to it.
Ivanka Trump was in the Oval Office on Jan. 6 as her father placed a late-morning call to Pence to pressure him to block or delay congressional certification of the Electoral College results documenting Joe Biden’s victory.
Ivanka Trump also accompanied her father to the rally of his supporters at the Ellipse near the White House.
Kushner returned from the Middle East that day, going to the White House after the pro-trump mob had been rioting for hours. Both he and his wife were involved in efforts to get Trump to tell the rioters to go home.