Donald Trump Jr. Testifies Before Jan. 6 House Committee Investigating Capitol Riot
Another member of the Trump family met with the Jan. 6 House committee. According to two sources familiar with the matter, Donald Trump Jr. faced the panel investigating the Capitol riot on Tuesday.
The sources told The Hill that Trump Jr. had a virtual meeting with the House committee. They said the virtual conference lasted for more than three hours, with the former president's son not asserting his Fifth Amendment privileges during the meeting.
One source described the meeting between Trump, Jr. and the House panel as "cordial" and "uneventful," adding that it was voluntary. An attorney for Trump Jr., Alan Futerfas, reportedly declined to comment on the matter.
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Donald Trump Jr. Testified to Jan. 6 House Committee
The House committee has released a series of text messages from January 6, 2021, in which Donald Trump Jr. pleaded with the White House to get his father to forcefully condemn the Capitol riot.
The Guardian reported that Trump Jr. wrote to former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows that his father needed an Oval address and had to "lead now" as the situation in the Capitol "has gone too far and gotten out of hand."
Trump Jr. is one of around 1,000 witnesses that the committee has interviewed as it works to compile a record of the worst attack on the Capitol in more than two centuries.
The Jan. 6 panel also spoke to Ivanka Trump for eight hours early last month. Her husband, Jared Kushner, has also been interviewed by the committee.
Other allies of the former president have refused to comply with subpoenas from the committee. Some have been referred to the Justice Department for potential prosecution on contempt of Congress charges, like Stephen Bannon.
Bannon, the former adviser of Donald Trump, was indicted last year after he refused to cooperate. His case is still pending. Donald Trump Jr.'s meeting with the committee comes around one month before the panel is set to hold eight public hearings.
Capitol Riot House Committee Probe
Jan. 6 panel chairman Bennie Thompson expressed doubts about Ivanka Trump and her husband's willingness to testify.
Thompson noted that while Ivanka and Jared Kushner's testimonies were not against the former president, they did corroborate the accounts of other key witnesses and have helped "fill in a lot of the gaps," according to Newsweek.
The former president has criticized Ivanka for the eight-hour interviews with the House committee, even describing it as a "shame and harassment." He added that he had offered "privilege" to both Ivanka and her husband.
The White House refused to offer privileges to the former Trump administration officials, including the couple. Bannon, Meadows, Dan Scavino, and Peter Navarro have all been held in contempt of Congress by the House for refusing to cooperate with the panel.
Thompson noted that Ivanka and Kushner's statements kind of supported the fact that Donald Trump was told that he had to do something to stop the Jan. 6 Capitol riot.
The panel is seeking to uncover what the former president was doing and who he was in communication with on that day due to the almost eight-hour gap in the presidential phone logs from that day.
This article is owned by Latin Post.
Written by: Mary Webber
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