Jared Kushner and former President Donald Trump's daughter Ivanka have been subpoenaed by special counsel Jack Smith in the investigation of Jan. 6, The New York Times reported Wednesday, citing sources.
The subpoena, sources told the Times, seeks the married couple's grand jury testimony about Trump's 2020 presidential election challenge and Trump's actions surrounding the storming of the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, which stopped the constitutionally authorized debate on then-President-elect Joe Biden's Electoral College votes.
Smith has also subpoenaed former Vice President Mike Pence, who has vowed to fight the subpoena on the grounds of the "speech or debate" clause of the Constitution.
Kushner and Ivanka were senior White House advisers during the Trump administration, but they have chosen to stay out of Trump's 2024 presidential campaign to date.
Trump has suggested he would invoke executive privilege on private communications between the president and his staff, but Trump did not try to stop Kushner or Ivanka from testifying before the House Jan. 6 committee.
Ivanka was in the Oval Office on Jan. 6 during the president's call with Pence before the session of Congress to certifying the 2020 presidential Electoral College votes, according to the Times.
Trump argued the Constitution gives the vice president the authority to send the Electoral College votes back to the states for review, but Pence argued his participation in the Jan. 6 congressional session was merely ceremonial.
Kushner returned from the Middle East that day and reportedly urged the president to speak to the Jan. 6 protesters to share peace and commit to the transfer of power to Biden.
Kushner and Ivanka's testimony played by the House Jan. 6 committee reportedly infuriated the former president, sources told the Times.
Donald Trump has called on "fake news" reports about Kushner and Ivanka declining to be a part of his 2024 presidential campaign announcement at Mar-a-Lago last November.
"Contrary to Fake News reporting, I never asked Jared or Ivanka to be part of the 2024 campaign for president and, in fact, specifically asked them not to do it," Trump wrote on Truth Social, expecting the campaign would be "too mean and nasty."
"There has never been anything like this ‘ride’ before, and they should not be further subjected to it."
Eric Mack ✉
Eric Mack has been a writer and editor at Newsmax since 2016. He is a 1998 Syracuse University journalism graduate and a New York Press Association award-winning writer.
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