Jan. 6 Committee Invites Ivanka Over For Coffee Cake, Reminds Her Not To Do Crimes

Belatedly.

Princess Goya von Nepotism is having a bad week.

It started with the mean attorney general lady in New York saying the invitation to come in and tell all the stuff she did at work wasn't really an invitation at all. Besides, it's stuff everybody totally does (although maybe not quite so aggressively) and why does it even matter anyway? UNFAIR!

Then she got an "invitation" from a bunch of mean people in Congress to come in and talk about this one day at the White House when things got a little out of hand. And the invitation has a lot of stuff in it — personal stuff! — and ugh, it kind of seems like this one might not be a real "invitation" either. Like maybe they'll send a subpoena like the New York lady, and she'll have to go sit in a room with them? And Daddy's been suing everyone he can think of, but still this whole thing won't go away. Ughhhh, why does everything always happen to her?

EL OH EL.

Yesterday the January 6 Select Committee sent an 11-page letter to Ivanka Trump requesting the honor of her presence the first week of February to discuss the crazy shit that went down in the White House on January 6. Armed with extensive news reports and firsthand testimony from former National Security Advisor Keith Kellogg, the Committee is already intimately familiar with her movements on that day.

"One of the President's discussions with the Vice President occurred by phone on the morning of January 6th," Chair Bennie Thompson wrote, in case Vanky has any doubt they've already got the goods on her. "You were present in the Oval Office and observed at least one side of that telephone conversation. General Keith Kellogg was also present in the Oval Office during that call, and has testified about that discussion, as follows."

Broadly speaking, the Committee wants to ask her about three specific topics: First, they want to know who told Donald Trump it was legal for Mike Pence to unilaterally discard Electoral votes, and who in the White House pushed back. Essentially, they're asking what her father knew about the patent illegality of this scheme, and when he knew it.

"[T]he Committee has information suggesting that President Trump's White House Counsel may have concluded that the actions President Trump directed Vice President Pence to take would violate the Constitution or would be otherwise illegal," the note, adding, "To your knowledge, were any such legal conclusions shared with President Trump?"

Second, they want to know about Trump's reaction as the violence unfolded.

"Testimony obtained by the Select Committee indicates that members of the White House staff requested your assistance on multiple occasions to intervene in an attempt to persuade President Trump to address the ongoing lawlessness and violence on Capitol Hill," Thompson writes, noting later that "Apparently, certain White House staff believed that a live unscripted press appearance by the President in the midst of the Capitol Hill violence could have made the situation worse."

They want her to confirm on the record that she had to beg her father to call off the rioters and that his own staff refused to let him address the country live because they feared he'd incite further violence, rather than quell it.

Third, they want her to admit that Trump did nothing at all to protect the Capitol, neither contacting the Justice Department nor calling up the National Guard.

Let's take a wild shot in the dark that Ivanka is not going to come in and tell the Committee that her father was totally off the chain that day, that he hoped the crowd would succeed, and that the entire Trumpland apparatus was attempting to manage him like a deranged 200-pound toddler. And let's further assume the Committee members know this.

In that light, it seems pretty likely the rest of this letter is for consumption by the general public, and particularly those members of it who might have corresponded with people in the White House. The Committee already has a shit ton of documents, and it's about to get all the White House comms, after the Supreme Court refused to block the Archives disclosure. So a witness considering blowing off the Committee might think twice after reading about "a member of the House Freedom Caucus with knowledge of the President's planning for that day" who texted a warning to Mark Meadows on January 6 that "If POTUS allows this to occur ... we're driving a stake in the heart of the federal republic." Because we can do this the easy way, or we can do this the all your texts in Politico way.

Or maybe they're just fucking with Sean Hannity for fun. Kayleigh McEnany, Trump's former press secretary, cooperated with the Committee, and appears to have turned over her texts. And Mark Meadows handed over a massive trove of his documents before refusing to testify and getting himself referred to the DOJ for contempt of Congress charges. So the Committee is taking this opportunity to remind "Donald Trump, Jr., Laura Ingraham, Brian Kilmeade, Sean Hannity, multiple members of Congress and the press, Governor Chris Christie, and many others" that they've already got lots of embarrassing shit in pocket.

Here's a fun passage describing efforts to manage the Man Baby in Chief:

The Committee has information that White House staff and others were attempting to persuade President Trump to halt his statements regarding a "stolen election" and were working directly with other supporters outside the White House in an effort to persuade President Trump to do so. Sean Hannity appears to have been part of those efforts. Mr. Hannity's texts to both the White House Chief of Staff and White House Press Secretary describe his communications with the President. First, on January 7th, Mr. Hannity texted Ms. McEnany, laying out a five point approach for conversations with President Trump. Items one and two of that plan read as follows.

1-"No more stolen election talk."

2-Yes impeachment and 25 th amendment are real, and many people will quit

In response, Ms. McEnany replied: "Love that. Thank you. That is the playbook. I will help reinforce. ..."

Ms. McEnany also agreed with Mr. Hannity's text specifically recommending that that White House staff should make an effort to keep Mr. Trump away from certain people: Sean Hannity: "... Key now. No more crazy people." Kayleigh McEnany responded: "Yes. 100%."

The Committee closes with a warning pretty clearly directed at Ivanka herself, a none-too-subtle reminder that it is illegal to withhold official communications from the National Archives or to destroy them, even if those communications are currently residing on a personal device.

"We also wish to share with you a memorandum from former White House Counsel Donald McGahn (attached), regarding the legal requirements on White House personnel to turn over to the National Archives any work-related messages from personal devices," they note. "We wish to be certain that former White House staff are fully aware of these obligations."

We almost feel sorry for her. But not quite .

[ Select Committee Press Release ]

Follow Liz Dye on Twitter!

Click the widget to keep your Wonkette ad-free and feisty. And if you're ordering from Amazon, use this link, because reasons .