Won't assert executive privilege

White House won't assert executive privilege for Jared Kushner, Ivanka Trump testimony

The move comes as the Jan. 6 select committee looks to decipher Kushner’s role in the events surrounding the attack on the Capitol.

By MYAH WARD

The White House said on Tuesday it would not invoke executive privilege over the testimony of Jared Kushner or Ivanka Trump, as former President Donald Trump’s son-in-law is expected to voluntarily appear before the Jan. 6 select committee this week.

“The president has spoken to the fact that Jan. 6 was one of the darkest days in our country’s history and that we must have a full accounting of what happened to ensure that it never occurs again,” communications director Kate Bedingfield said during the daily press briefing. “And he’s been quite clear that they posed a unique threat to our democracy and that 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. So, as a result, the White House has decided not to assert executive privilege over the testimony of Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump.”

The White House’s move comes as the select committee looks to decipher Kushner’s role in the events surrounding the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol. While the former White House adviser didn’t play a visible part in supporting Trump’s efforts to subvert the election results, he often gave him advice on sensitive matters.

The Jan. 6 investigators have already revealed that they are interested in Ivanka Trump, the former president’s daughter and Kushner’s wife, whom senior White House aides viewed as a last resort to persuade her father to address Capitol rioters during the insurrection. She has been in communication with the panel and was asked to testify at the end of January.

President Joe Biden has decided against invoking executive privilege multiple times when it comes to the investigation of the Capitol attack, what he has deemed the “darkest” day in U.S. history. In October, the White House waived executive privilege to shield an initial set of records from the Trump White House. Biden has also turned down efforts by Dan Scavino, the longtime social media manager for Trump, to resist the committee’s investigation by asserting executive privilege.

A deluge of the committee’s findings have come to light this week, including Ginni Thomas’ communications with White House chief of staff Mark Meadows about fighting the 2020 election results. Kushner’s name came up in these texts, in which Thomas, wife of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, referenced sending an email to “Jared” on the matter.

New revelations also surfaced on Tuesday about a seven-hour gap in Trump’s White House call log on Jan. 6, 2021, according to reports from The Washington Post and CBS News. The panel is now looking into whether Trump used alternative means to communicate that day, including phones of aides or so-called burner phones.