WASHINGTON — The White House will not block former President Donald Trump’s daughter and son-in-law, Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner, from testifying to the House committee investigating the Jan. 6 insurrection.
“The constitutional protections of executive privilege should not be used to shield from Congress or the public information about an attack on the Constitution itself,” White House communications director Kate Bedingfield told reporters Tuesday.
Kushner is expected to appear voluntarily before the committee this week, ABC News reported. Ivanka Trump is in talks with the panel over delivering testimony, according to the network. A spokesman for the panel declined to comment about whether Kushner or Ivanka Trump will testify.
Kushner would be the highest-ranking member of the Trump administration to sit for an interview with congressional investigators looking into the events of Jan. 6.
The House committee is investigating a long gap in White House phone records on the day of the insurrection, California Democratic Representative Pete Aguilar, a panel member, said Tuesday.
The former president’s son-in-law was traveling abroad when the Capitol riot began. The committee has reported that it has testimony that Ivanka Trump was present in the Oval Office the morning of Jan. 6, when her father spoke by phone with then-Vice President Mike Pence.
The committee’s probe is aimed in part at discovering more about the former president’s incitement of the insurrection, and what he did to either encourage the violence or bring it to a stop.
The committee’s chairman, Representative Bennie Thompson of Mississippi, declined late Monday to confirm Kushner’s appearance.
The White House has previously rejected asserting executive privilege for others who have been invited or subpoenaed to appear before the committee, including Trump aides Dan Scavino and Peter Navarro.
The committee voted Monday to recommend the full House hold Scavino and Navarro in criminal contempt of Congress for refusing to cooperate under subpoena. The House will vote on that resolution next week, according to a House Democratic official familiar with the plans.
