Jared Kushner, the son-in-law of former President Donald Trump, told the Jan. 6 committee he advised the president not to follow Rudy Giuliani’s advice. He was promoting wild conspiracy theories about the election.
A brief excerpt from Monday’s public hearing’s hour-long interview with Kushner shows the former White House adviser being asked if he has ever shared his view on Giuliani’s legal work with him.
Kushner stated in the clip, “I guess — yes.”
Kushner replied, “Basically, not how I would approach you if I were you.”
Trump did not respond to Kushner’s request. Kushner stated that Trump replied, “You know, Rudy has my confidence.”
It is not clear when the Trump-Kushner exchange took place. After top Trump advisors stated that Giuliani, an “intoxicated” man, had asked Trump to declare victory on election day. The advisers disagreed. Trump took Giuliani’s advice and made remarks from the White House, declaring, “Frankly we won this election.”
Monday’s hearing was the second of six scheduled for this month. The committee showed video of Ivanka testifying that she didn’t believe her father was in a position of declaring victory on Election Day. She spoke at the White House on Election Night and then moved to a room nearby where family members were.
Ivanka Trump was asked if she had any thoughts on whether her father should win. She replied, “I don’t know that I had any firm view as what he should do, in this circumstance.” The results were still being counted. It became clear that the race would not go to the polls on election night.
The panel’s first hearing was held on Thursday. In the clip, the first daughter, who was also a White House adviser, stated that her opinion was changed weeks later when William Barr, then-Attorney general, said that there was no evidence that fraud would have affected the outcome of the 2020 election.
“It changed my perspective. I respect Attorney General Barr so I understood what he was saying,” Ivanka Donald said.
Representatives of Ivanka Trump and Kushner did not respond to a request immediately for comment.
On Friday, the former president released a statement claiming that his daughter did not know what he was talking about.
“Ivanka Trump wasn’t involved in studying or looking at the Election results. She had checked out the results and was, in my view, only trying to be respectful of Bill Barr and his position at Attorney General (he sucked!). He said it in a Truth Social post.
In a Monday video clip, Barr stated that Trump was angry that he had pushed back against his fraud claims at a November meeting. Kushner and White House chief staff Mark Meadows tried their best to assure him that Trump would eventually come to his senses.
Barr told Meadows that he believed their boss was “becoming less unrealistic and knows there’s limits to what he can do.” Jared then said, “You know Jared, we’re still working on this. We’re working hard on it.”
Kushner was interviewed by the committee for more than six hours in March, and Ivanka Trump was interviewed for eight hours in April.
The panel also spoke to Trump’s oldest son Donald Trump Jr. and his fiancee Kimberly Guilfoyle. However, they have yet to record their interviews. Both were involved in Trump’s campaign, even though they did not work for the White House.
In December, Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.), served as vice-chair and read a message Trump Jr. had sent Meadows Jan. 6 asking him to stop the violence at Capitol.
