Jan. 6 committee releases 46 more interview transcripts from probe

(WASHINGTON) — The House committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol on Friday released its latest batch of transcripts from interviews conducted during the probe.

The 46 transcripts, available on the committee’s website, include the panel’s interviews with former White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany and former President Donald Trump’s daughter Ivanka.

The transcripts show that Trump called McEnany days after she received her subpoena to testify before the Jan. 6 committee, according to McEnany’s testimony.

But McEnany told investigators she ignored the call.

“I believe, shortly after I was subpoenaed, I received a call from President Trump, but I did not answer the call,” she said, according to the transcripts. “As I noted to the committee, I have not spoken with him since being subpoenaed. But that’s all to the best of my recollection. I might have received another text I’m forgetting about.”

In its voluminous final report released late Thursday night, the committee said they are aware of “multiple efforts by President Trump to contact Select Committee witnesses,” and that the Justice Department is aware of at least one of those circumstances.

McEnany said she also received a text from General Keith Kellogg and Trump ally Kash Patel after being subpoenaed, and had a phone call with former Trump aide Stephen Miller.

Ivanka Trump, in her testimony, repeatedly told the committee that she could not recall or remember the answers to their questions about her actions and conversations on Jan. 6 — including those with her father.

According to the transcripts, the phrase “don’t recall,” “don’t remember,” or “don’t know” came up more than 300 times amongst her and investigators while she was being interviewed.

Committee members at times appeared skeptical about some of Ivanka’s responses, including when she claimed she never discussed the events of Jan. 6 with her husband, Jared Kushner, as they returned home from the White House that night.

“You just lived through what is understandably very — as you’ve explained, an experience that I think was incredibly traumatic,” committee vice chair Liz Cheney pressed her at one point. “You’d been directly involved in that. It was exceedingly intense. And you haven’t talked to your husband about it since?”

“Ivanka Trump was not as forthcoming as … others about President Trump’s conduct,” the committee noted in its summary report released earlier in the week. “Indeed, Ivanka Trump’s Chief of Staff Julie Radford had a more specific recollection of Ivanka Trump’s actions and statements.”

According to the testimony of former White House communications director Hope Hicks, days after the attack on the Capitol she was asked by Trump if Jan 6. was “as bad as everyone says it was?” Hicks told him yes, she testified.

Following Jan. 6, Hicks said she texted a colleague regarding Trump: “In one day he ended every future opportunity that doesn’t include speaking engagements at the local Proud Boys chapter.”

Other interviewees whose transcripts were released Friday include former attorney general Bill Barr, former White House counsel Pat Cipollone, former acting attorney general Jeffrey Rosen, Trump-backed attorney Sidney Powell, and Marc Short, who was chief of staff to Vice President Mike Pence.

Friday’s release followed the release of three dozen interview transcripts over the last week.

Among those witnesses whose testimony was released earlier this week are former President Donald Trump’s one-time national security adviser Michael Flynn, Proud Boys leader Enrique Tarrio, Oath Keepers leader Stewart Rhodes, Infowars host Alex Jones, onetime Trump campaign adviser Roger Stone, and Trump-backed attorneys John Eastman and Jenna Ellis.

Most of those transcripts contained responses from the witnesses invoking their Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination.

The committee’s final report, the culmination of its 17-month probe, called on Congress to consider barring Trump from holding further office for leading what it called a “multi-part conspiracy to overturn the lawful results of the 2020 Presidential election.”

Copyright © 2022, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.