The January 6th investigations seem to show no signs of slowing down, at least for now —it was revealed that special counsel Jack Smith issued subpoenas for former President Trump’s daughter, Ivanka, as well as her husband, Jared Kushner.
Ivanka and Jared both had roles working in the Trump administration, serving as senior advisors to the former president.
Others from Trump’s inner circle who have been commanded to appear by Smith in recent weeks include former Vice President Mike Pence and former Trump chief of staff Mark Meadows.
The New York Post reports that Jared and Ivanka were called to testify before a federal grand jury that is apparently probing Trump’s alleged attempts to stay in power following the 2020 election.
Pence is expected to contest the subpoena, with reported plans to argue that he is protected by the Constitution’s Speech or Debate clause in his role as president of the Senate. According to the Post, the clause stops members of Congress from being asked questions in court that pertain to legislative acts.
Meadows has tried to resist forced testimonies in the past but was apparently compelled to testify before a special grand jury in Georgia that investigated Trump’s supposed efforts to flip the 2020 election results of the state.
It remains unknown if Ivanka and Jared will also contest the issued subpoenas or if the former president will try to prevent such testimony on the grounds of executive privilege.
This is not the first time the couple has been targeted by the U.S. government in what some have described as an effort to place desired political outcomes over issuing genuine justice. A clip captured in 2019 showed Rep. Chip Roy (R-TX) appearing to be quite irritated by the news of a potential subpoena, referring to it as a “fishing expedition for political purposes.”
He additionally brought up the continually ballooning U.S. debt, asking, “what are we passing down to [our children], a hundred million dollars of debt per hour?”
Rep. Chip Roy walked out of the House Oversight hearing this morning after Rep. Gerald Connolly pushed back on his critique of the committee's efforts to subpoena records from Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner.
Mr. Roy later came back to the hearing.
🎥https://t.co/cUdWkHapf2 pic.twitter.com/6U0JecIZqd
— CSPAN (@cspan) July 25, 2019
At the time of Roy’s congressional appearance in July 2019, The U.S. debt was in the 20s of trillions. It has climbed substantially since, with current estimates putting it around $31.5 trillion in January of this year.