Ivanka Trump interview sought by January 6 riot probe

The House select committee investigating the Jan. 6 Capitol riot on Thursday invited Ivanka Trump, daughter of former President Donald Trump, to provide information and participate in a voluntary interview.

Ivanka Trump was a senior White House advisor when her father president, and evidently has direct knowledge about what went on at the White House during the riot, committee chairman Rep. Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., said in an 8-page letter.

The committee wants to ask her about Trump’s actions, or inaction, and his state of mind on Jan. 6, 2021, when hundreds of his supporters stormed the Capitol and temporarily stopped Congress from confirming President Joe Biden’s 2020 election victory.

A spokesperson for Donald Trump did not immediately respond to CNBC’s request for comment on the letter. A spokesperson for Ivanka Trump told NBC News shortly after the letter was made public that she had just learned about it.

“As the Committee already knows, Ivanka did not speak at the January 6 rally. As she publicly stated that day at 3:15pm, ‘any security breach or disrespect to our law enforcement is unacceptable. The violence must stop immediately. Please be peaceful,'” the spokesperson said.

The latest development in the probe came less than one day after the Supreme Court rejected Trump’s bid to block the House committee from obtaining a slew of records from his time in the White House. Trump had argued the records were protected by executive privilege, although Biden, the incumbent president, decided not to invoke privilege over them.

The ruling gives a green light to the National Archives to hand more than 700 pages of records over to the committee.

Thompson’s letter to Ivanka Trump proposed a meeting on Feb. 3 or Feb. 4. The committee wants to ask her about four specific issues, his letter said.

First, the conversation Ivanka Trump witnessed between Donald Trump and then-Vice President Mike Pence hours before the riot started, as well as any other talks regarding Trump’s “plan to obstruct or impede the counting of electoral votes,” Thompson wrote.

His letter noted that Ivanka Trump was in the Oval Office when Trump called Pence on the phone on the morning of Jan. 6. Gen. Keith Kellogg, who was also in the room during that call, confirmed in testimony to the committee that Trump said words to the effect of, “You don’t have the courage to make a hard decision.”

Second, the panel wants to ask Ivanka about what was said at the White House on the day of the riot before and after Trump tweeted a criticism of Pence over his refusal to reject the Electoral College votes that secured Biden’s victory.

“Mike Pence didn’t have the courage to do what should have been done to protect our Country and our…