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Donald Trump Jr

House Select Committee Interviews Coup Conspirator Donald Trump Jr.

Donald Trump Jr., former President Trump’s eldest son, voluntarily appeared before the House Select Committee, a bipartisan congressional panel investigating the sordid January 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol, according to multiple news outlets.

The meeting happened virtually and lasted a few hours, and Trump Jr. answered every question without pleading the Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination. Sources told CNN that interaction between congressional investigators and the former president’s son was "cordial.".

The interview marks the select committee’s investigative foray into Trump’s inner circle of family members and top political advisers. Trump Jr. is the second of Trump’s adult children to testify before the select committee. Ivanka Trump submitted to an 8-hour-long interview with the committee in early April, and her husband and former senior Trump adviser, Jared Kushner, spoke to the select committee for 6 hours and provided, according to Rep. Zoe Lofgren (D-CA), "useful” testimony.

Last week, the select committee chair, Bennie Thompson, told reporters that Trump Jr. was on the panel’s deposition wishlist, which isn’t a surprise because the former president’s oldest son was a top figure in his father’s 2020 reelection campaign.

Trump Jr. was also one of the most high-profile disseminators of election fraud conspiracies at the center of his father's doomed reelection bid. He was present at the “Stop the Steal” rally at the Eclipse on January 6 with his fiancee, Kimberly Guilfoyle, and other members of his family, where his father gave a speech that, investigators believe, incited a pro-Trump mob to attack the Capitol during the congressional certification of Joe Biden’s victory.

“These guys better fight for Trump. Because if they’re not, guess what? I’m going to be in your backyard in a couple of months!” Trump Jr. told a crowd of Trump supporters at the January 6 rally, threatening Republican lawmakers thinking of voting to acknowledge Biden’s landslide victory.

Guilfoyle also spoke at the rally in support of Trump’s baseless conspiracies of widespread election fraud, a publicity stunt that garnered the interest of the January 6 congressional investigators. The select committee said it had evidence that Guilfoyle boasted of her role in fundraising for the rally, and that she had told others who Trump would allow to speak at the rally, per CBS News.

Months earlier, Guilfoyle volunteered to testify to the select committee, but her lawyers abruptly ended the interview, which was being done remotely, over a disagreement over ground rules. The select committee later issued a subpoena to Guilfoyle, compelling her to testify for over nine hours.

Last month, CNN published reams of messages between Trump allies before and after the Capitol riot, and among them was a text message Trump Jr. sent to Mark Meadows, then-White House chief of staff, two days after election day; “It’s very simple. We have multiple paths. We control them all,” Trump Jr. told Meadows, referring to a shocking inner-circle effort to declare then-President Trump the victor of the 2020 elections he lost.

In a series of text messages released by the select committee itself, Trump Jr. sang a different tune after the crowd at the January 6 rally stormed the Capitol. “We need an Oval address. He has to lead now. It has gone too far and gotten out of hand,” Trump Jr. wrote to Meadows.

Trump Jr. is one of 1000 witnesses the select committee has deposed as it seeks to wrap up its far-reaching investigations into one of the worst Capitol attacks in over 200 years.

However, some Trump Administration staff members have refused interviews, including several top Trump allies: Don Scavino, Meadows, Peter Navarro, and Steve Bannon. Congress has held all four in contempt for refusing to comply with congressional subpoenas. The Justice Department has already charged Bannon, who, along with the others, claimed to be following Trump’s orders to claim executive privilege.

Ivanka Trump Meets With House Select Committee On Capitol Riot

Ivanka Trump Meets With House Select Committee On Capitol Riot

As a contempt vote in the House looms for Trump White House officials who sidestepped subpoenas from the House Select Committee on January 6, NBC News has reported first that investigators of the attempted overthrow are meeting today with Ivanka Trump, the ex-president’s daughter and onetime adviser.

Ivanka reportedly will appear before the committee Wednesday, on the heels of a private deposition given by her husband and fellow senior adviser to the former president, Jared Kushner. Kushner appeared voluntarily. Ivanka was first asked to appear in January and talks have reportedly been ongoing since then.


The probe is particularly interested in hearing details from Ivanka about her father’s conduct before, during, and after the siege. Former Vice President Mike Pence’s national security adviser, Keith Kellogg, told the committee he and Ivanka were present when Trump called Pence to pressure him to stop the certification.

As that call ended, Ivanka turned to Kellogg and said of the vice president: “Mike Pence is a good man.”

It is unclear whether Ivanka Trump will appear remotely or in person. A representative for the committee declined to comment to Daily Kos on Wednesday.

If she indeed appears, she will be the second member of the Trump family circle to testify since Kushner went first last week.

Investigators have targeted phone records belonging to Eric Trump, as well as records belonging to Kimberly Guilfoyle, Donald Trump Jr.’s fiancée. Guilfoyle received a separate subpoena direct from the committee on March 3 following a voluntary appearance that fell apart fast.

The committee has appeared generous with Trump family members thus far, extending opportunities for “friendly” or voluntary meetings and granting time to negotiate appearances.

Guilfoyle was afforded that friendliness, too, but balked on the day of her deposition, when she realized she would have to testify in front of members of the committee as well as House counsel. Her attorney chalked up the opposition to a fear of media leaks.

Guilfoyle’s fundraising efforts around the rally at the Ellipse on January 6 are front and center for the probe. Last year, text messages obtained by ProPublica showed Guilfoyle boasting about raising no less than $3 million for the event. She was also backstage at the rally, seen celebrating with those closest to the president just before his speech to a crowd that would soon descend violently on the U.S. Capitol.

It is unclear whether Guilfoyle has agreed to cooperate since her last botched appearance.

Kushner’s appearance went smoothly, according to Rep. Zoe Lofgren, a California Democrat who serves on the committee. Lofgren was mum on details during an appearance on CNN following the meeting but described Kushner as “precise.”

Though she did say Kushner “did not volunteer” anything.

The meeting lasted six hours but Lofgren emphasized that the deposition was not “volatile.”

Fellow January 6 investigator Rep. Elaine Luria (D-VA) told NPR that Kushner’s testimony was “helpful.”

“I think that the committee really appreciates hearing information directly from people who have relevant facts about January 6, and the fact that Jared Kushner came as a witness is helpful to building the story of our investigation,” the Virginia Democrat said.

Unlike Ivanka, Kushner was not in Washington, D.C., on January 6.

He was heading back to the U.S. from Saudi Arabia while she, according to testimony already provided to the committee, was busy trying to convince her father to say something publicly to soothe the mob attacking the Capitol and threatening to kill Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi and Vice President Pence.

Where Ivanka’s insights into how she soothed her father during the riot are sought by the committee, it’s likely that investigators asked Kushner about the widely reported role he played: telling Trump that he lost the 2020 election to Joe Biden.

Luria said that Kushner’s testimony allowed the committee to “substantiate information” while providing “his own take on different reports on the January 6 attack.”

Reprinted with permission from Daily Kos

Kimberly Guilfoyle

The Flakiest Falsehoods Told At Republican Convention

Republicans told countless lies over the past four days of the 2020 Republican National Convention, speaking as if the pandemic that's killed more than 180,000 people in the United States is over, suggesting Donald Trump oversaw an economic expansion in the middle of the worst recession the country has faced since the Great Depression, and blaming Democrats for violence on Trump's watch.

A handful of those lies were so false and confusing they are worth singling out and debunking.

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Danziger Draws

Danziger Draws

Jeff Danziger lives in New York City. He is represented by CWS Syndicate and the Washington Post Writers Group. He is the recipient of the Herblock Prize and the Thomas Nast (Landau) Prize. He served in the US Army in Vietnam and was awarded the Bronze Star and the Air Medal. He has published eleven books of cartoons and one novel. Visit him at DanzigerCartoons.