Ivanka Trump’s testimony before House investigators may have not been entirely truthful, according to her former chief of staff, who contradicted the former first daughter about why she accompanied President Donald Trump to the Ellipse for his speech that fueled the January 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol.
Ivanka Trump, who was also a White House senior advisor, said in a video — played by the committee investigating the January 6 attack on the Capitol during Tuesday’s hearing — that she did not attend the rally to calm her father down after a phone call he’d had with then-Vice President Mike Pence.
During a phone call before Trump’s speech, Pence told Trump that he would not help him overturn the 2020 election, and Trump called Pence a “wimp,” according to testimonies from previous hearings.
Rep. Stephanie Murphy (D-Fl) said during Tuesday’s hearing that Donald Trump was “worked up” from the call and asked Ivanka about it.
“It has been reported that you ultimately decided to attend the rally because you hoped that you would calm the president and keep [him] on an even keel,” one of the investigators asked Ivanka Trump, according to video aired during the hearing. “Is that accurate?”
Ivanka Trump replied that it wasn’t.
“No. I don’t know who said that or where that came from,” she said.
However, Ivanka’s former chief of staff, Julie Radford, contradicted Ivanka Trump’s testimony.
“What did she share with you about why it was concerning that her father was upset or agitated after that call with Vice President Pence in relation to the Ellipse rally? Why did that matter? Why did he have to be calmed down?” the investigator asked.
Radford shared that Ivanka said her father had called Pence “an expletive word.”
“I think that bothered her, and I think she could tell based on the conversation and what was going on the office that he was angry and upset and people were providing this information and she felt like she might be able to help calm this situation down, at least before he went on stage,” Radford said.
The clip did not indicate whether the comments represented Radford’s interpretation of Ivanka’s decisions, but both women were testifying under oath.
The House select committee investigating the Capitol insurrection aired the contradicting video testimony from Ivanka Trump and her former chief of staff, Julie Radford, during Tuesday’s hearing:
lol Ivanka and Ivanka's chief of staff told two different stories during their depositions about Trump's frazzled state of mind on January 6 pic.twitter.com/U64Yz4zm6v
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) July 12, 2022
