The Albany Gazette - Ivanka Trump to testify Tuesday to US Capitol assault probe: US media

The House January 6 select committee had asked the 40-year-old businesswoman -- a senior advisor to her father -- to appear voluntarily, telling her it had evidence that she had pleaded with him to call off the violence as his supporters stormed Congress.

"Testimony obtained by the committee indicates that members of the White House staff requested your assistance on multiple occasions to intervene in an attempt to persuade President Trump to address the ongoing lawlessness and violence on Capitol Hill," chairman Bennie Thompson wrote to her in January.

Investigators are looking into how the attack, which shut down Congress as lawmakers were certifying the 2020 presidential election, took place and to what extent then-president Trump and his aides had a part in encouraging it.

The committee has already spoken to around 800 witnesses -- including Ivanka Trump's husband Jared Kushner -- and has been working its way through 90,000 documents and more than 435 messages received through its tip line.

The committee didn't immediately respond to a request for comment on the former first daughter's appearance, first reported by NBC and Politico.

It is treating the former first daughter's actions as the riot was underway as a "key focus" of the probe.

She appears to have direct knowledge of her father's attempt to persuade then-vice president Mike Pence to stop the counting of electoral votes, the committee said when it asked her to come forward.

"As January 6 approached, President Trump attempted on multiple occasions to persuade vice president Pence to participate in his plan," Thompson wrote.

"One of the president's discussions with the vice president occurred by phone on the morning of January 6. You were present in the Oval Office and observed at least one side of that telephone conversation."

The panel has said it was also seeking information from Ivanka Trump about concerns voiced by White House lawyers, lawmakers and Pence aides about her father's plan "to obstruct or impede the counting of electoral votes."

The eldest of the former president's two daughters, who served as director of the White House Office of Economic Initiatives and Entrepreneurship, wasn't immediately available for comment.

(K.Müller--BBZ)