Jan. 6 Committee Member Confirms Jared Kushner Provided Hours of Testimony With ‘Precise’ and ‘Not Combative’ Answers
The House Select Committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021 attack on the U.S. Capitol questioned former President Donald Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, on Thursday, and a member of that committee appeared on CNN to confirm that he did provide hours of testimony with “precise” and “not combative” answers.
News broke last week that Kushner was expected to appear before the committee on Thursday. Both Kushner and his wife Ivanka Trump were among Trump’s inner circle of advisers, and the committee has said they hope to hear testimony from the couple.
Ivanka Trump was with the president at the White House on Jan. 6, and multiple sources described her conduct as repeatedly urging her father to call for an end to the violence. Kushner was on a flight back to Washington, D.C. from Saudi Arabia that day, and according to ABC News’ Jonathan Karl, avoided returning to the White House because he did not want to get into a “fight” with his father-in-law.
On Wednesday, the White House confirmed that President Joe Biden would not assert executive privilege over the testimony of either Kushner or Ivanka Trump.
CNN Newsroom host Jim Acosta interviewed Rep. Zoe Lofgren (D-CA), a member of the Jan. 6 committee, about Kushner’s testimony.
“I know you’re limited how much you can tell us about Kushner’s testimony,” Acosta said after introducing the congresswoman, “but how crucial was it?”
Lofgren commented that she couldn’t share details of the testimony until there had been a vote of the committee to release the information, and that had not happened regarding Kushner.
“But you can imagine, if the interview went on all day long, which it did, that there was information exchanged,” said Lofgren.
“And we appreciate that Mr. Kushner came in,” she continued, and they were “hoping to hear” from Ivanka Trump as well, and had sent her a similar letter requesting her testimony. “We hope that she will follow the path taken by Mr. Kushner.”
“And was Jared Kushner combative? Was he cooperative?” Acosta asked. “I know you can’t get into the detail of what he said, but for a session that lasted six hours, how would you describe how he was responding to the questions?”
“He was not combative,” Lofgren replied. “He was precise, and he didn’t volunteer anything, but he did answer questions, if he remembered the answers. So it was not a combative or a, you know, volatile exchange at all.”
Watch the video above, via CNN.
