“The Hungarian sociologist Bálint Magyar has coined the term “mafia state” to describe the creation of “political families” (which can include a ruler’s actual family, as in the examples of Trump’s, Orbán’s, Bolsonaro’s and Erdoğan’s children, with especially nefarious roles reserved for sons-in-law); these families then use the state to enrich themselves.”
Ivanka Trump on reality
“Perception is more important than reality.
If someone perceives something to be true, it is more important than if it is in fact true…
don’t go out of your way to correct a false assumption if it plays to your advantage.”
independent.co.uk, Oct. 16, 2016
The Jolt: Ivanka Trump: Too many Georgians ‘feel their vote has been canceled’,
Donald Trump Jr, has leaned into his father’s lies and anti-Democratic conspiracy theories about the electoral process, as reports say his daughter, Ivanka Trump, has urged him to concede — while apparently considering her own political future.
Ms Trump, who quickly displayed her own political ambitions following her father’s 2016 election despite not having any government experience, has mostly stayed silent on the administration’s baseless allegations of mass voter fraud.
She posted a single tweet about the issue after Election Day, as her father began ramping up his false claims surrounding mail-in voting and ballot counting, writing three days later: “Every legally cast vote should be counted. Every illegally cast vote should not.”
“This should not be controversial,” she added. “This is not a partisan statement — free and fair elections are the foundation of our democracy.”
Reality:
Choosing self and family over Nation . . .
Ivanka Trump testifies she doesn’t know much about financial documents in N.Y. fraud trial: Takeaways
Takeaways from Ivanka Trump’s testimony
- Ivanka Trump, former President Donald Trump’s older daughter, testified Wednesday in the $250 million civil fraud trial.
- She left the Trump Organization in 2017 to become a top White House aide for her father. Though she had been a co-defendant alongside her brothers Donald Trump Jr. and Eric Trump, an appeals court removed her from the case in June.
- Ivanka Trump testified during her direct examination and cross-examination that she wasn’t involved and didn’t know much about her father’s financial statements, which are at the heart of New York Attorney General Letitia James’ case. But James told reporters this morning that the ex-White House adviser is “inextricably tied to the Trump Organization.”
- She was largely evasive with her answers on the stand, often responding with the statement, “I don’t recall,” when she was asked about financial documents.
These Trump associates have appeared before the Jan. 6 grand jury
07/20/23
Multiple associates of former President Trump have appeared before the grand jury investigating Jan. 6, 2021, that informed Trump on Sunday he’s a target of their probe — likely indicating charges are coming soon.
The grand jury, convened by special counsel Jack Smith, has been looking into whether Trump knew he lost the 2020 presidential election, along with broader efforts to interfere with the transfer of power following election.
Trump’s former associates have reportedly been asked whether the former president acknowledged he lost the presidency while he was publicly outraged and claiming the election was stolen.
Here are the most notable Trump associates who have appeared before the Jan. 6 grand jury.
Jared Kushner
Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner gave testimony recently, the New York Times first reported.
He was reportedly asked about Trump’s mindset in the time between losing in the 2020 election in November to the Jan. 6 riots at the U.S. Capitol.
Kushner, Ivanka Trump’s husband, reportedly told prosecutors Trump genuinely believed the election was stolen.
Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump Subpoenaed in Jan. 6 Investigation
The special counsel overseeing the inquiry into Donald Trump’s efforts to retain power after the 2020 election wants the former president’s daughter and son-in-law to testify to a grand jury.
Maggie Haberman and
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/02/22/us/politics/jared-kushner-ivanka-trump-jan-6
Former President Donald J. Trump’s daughter Ivanka and his son-in-law, Jared Kushner, have been subpoenaed by the special counsel to testify before a federal grand jury about Mr. Trump’s efforts to stay in power after he lost the 2020 election and his role in a pro-Trump mob’s attack on the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, according to two people briefed on the matter.
The decision by the special counsel, Jack Smith, to subpoena Ms. Trump and Mr. Kushner underscores how deeply into Mr. Trump’s inner circle Mr. Smith is reaching, and is the latest sign that no potential high-level witness is off limits.
and they’re heading back to the fold . . .
Could Jared and Ivanka Return to the Trump Campaign Fold?
On the evening of July 19, Donald Trump hosted a private screening of the child-trafficking movie Sound of Freedom at his Bedminister golf club. The guest list included the film’s QAnon-promoting star, Jim Caviezel, and other MAGA elites, such as former Trump strategist Steve Bannon and newscaster turned election denier Kari Lake. Trump, standing in a blue suit and red tie, called Caviezel a “great star” and lauded the movie’s $100 million-plus box office haul as “really something.” But the presence of Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner is what has gotten Trumpworld buzzing.
According to Trump advisers, Ivanka and Kushner have been more visible lately, stoking speculation that the pair could take an active role in Trump’s 2024 campaign. “They’ve made it clear they’re supportive.
But with Trump dominating the 2024 Republican primary, some sources suggested Kushner and Ivanka might hop on the Trump train. “Now that the president is 40 points ahead, of course Jared is pretending he’s involved. If he’s president again, Jared needs to protect his turf, especially in the Middle East,” a former Trump administration official said.
Last fall, the couple made it clear they were done with politics. “I love my father very much. This time around, I am choosing to prioritize my young children and the private life we are creating as a family,” Ivanka said in a statement released on November 15, the day Trump launched his presidential campaign at Mar-a-Lago. Kushner, meanwhile, was focused on his private-equity firm. Months after leaving the White House, Kushner received a controversial $2 billion investment from the fund led by Saudi crown prince Mohammed bin Salman.
Kushner and Ivanka’s decision to back away from Trump seemed like a smart career move at the time. Trump’s political fortunes were dwindling. Many of the midterm candidates he endorsed––such as Lake, Doug Mastriano, and Herschel Walker–– lost winnable races. A Politico–Morning Consult poll found that 65% of voters said Trump should “probably or definitely not run again.” Florida governor Ron DeSantis looked formidable after his crushing 19-point reelection victory. A poll commissioned by the Texas Republican Party found that Texas Republicans preferred DeSantis over Trump by more than 10 points. Rupert Murdoch’s media empire was all in on DeSantis, famously running a New York Post cover with the headline “DeFUTURE.”
As Trump slumped, Kushner and Ivanka spent little time at Mar-a-Lago, a source said. That echoed their White House habit of disappearing during scandals but claiming credit for victories. But they’ve been closer to Trump this summer, with the ex-president having reasserted his grip on the Republican electorate.
One red flag for Kushner and Ivanka surely is the onslaught of legal threats facing Trump, who has already been criminally indicted twice this year, in connection to the hush money payment made to Stormy Daniels and his alleged mishandling of classified materials. (Trump has pleaded not guilty in both cases.) And the former president could be indicted imminently in both federal and Georgia cases related to his attempt to overturn the 2020 election. Kushner and Ivanka are highly protective of their brands and likely would not want to be publicly associated with Trump if he were to be convicted on federal or state charges.
But if Trump returns to the White House, Kushner and Ivanka’s calculus might change. “Everyone loves a winner!” a former Trump 2020 campaign adviser said.
Jared and Ivanka, Without the Power or the Masks
In stark videotaped interviews, Ivanka Trump accepted the notion that there had been no fraud in the 2020 election. Jared Kushner complained that a White House counsel had been “whining.”
First up was Ms. Trump. Speaking in a soft voice and seemingly aware that the video might be made public someday, she said she believed the words of the former attorney general, William P. Barr, who on Dec. 1, 2020, said that there was no widespread fraud impacting the election that had taken place three weeks earlier.
“It affected my perspective,” Ms. Trump said quietly, peering into a camera for a recorded interview that did not take place in person. “I respect Attorney General Barr. So I accepted what he said — was saying.”
That was despite what her father, President Donald J. Trump, was claiming, and despite the fact that, according to several White House aides working alongside her, she did little to try to temper his false claims that he had won the 2020 election. She continued to travel with him as he vented his claims in public.
No two people had positioned themselves as prominently in Mr. Trump’s White House as his daughter and his son-in-law, who came on as official advisers despite anti-nepotism laws and warnings from other aides that hiring family members can be fraught. Over four years, the two tended carefully to their images.
Aides feared getting on the wrong side of the couple, who lived in Washington’s expensive Kalorama neighborhood and hosted dinners for the city’s political elite.
The videos made clear that both were aware that things were going awry within the White House. But according to more than a half-dozen former Trump advisers, although both have attempted to distance themselves from that period, neither made much of an effort to pull Mr. Trump away from his obsession with staying in power.
Instead, they left that task to the paid staff, who in turn kept waiting for the family to intervene more aggressively. Shortly after Election Day, most aides tried to avoid the Oval Office, fearful of having to listen to Mr. Trump vent. They were also eager to avoid the worst- case scenario: a directive from Mr. Trump that might have been illegal, and could have ensnared them in an investigation.
Jan. 6 committee seeks testimony from Ivanka Trump to discuss her father’s attempt to overturn the election results
By Tom Hamburger and Jacqueline Alemany
January 20, 2022
[Excerpt:]
In his letter, Thompson also outlines the committee’s interest in discussions that happened “inside the White House and with the President before and after his 2:24 p.m. tweet” that slammed Pence for not having “the courage” to block the electoral vote. Testimony from Kellogg indicates that Ivanka Trump agreed to speak to the president to convince him to act to quell the violence but that she “had to make multiple efforts to persuade Trump to act.”
Independent.co.uk, Nov. 10, 2020
JARED AND IVANKA TRY TO REENTER POLITE SOCIETY, ARE PROMPTLY TOLD TO F–K OFF
December 1, 2021
https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2021/12/ivanka-trump-jared-kushner-louis-vuitton-fashion-show
Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner spent their entire tenure in Washington attempting to castthemselvesas people who not only belonged there, but who would one day return to D.C. not as daughter and son-in-law of the commander in chief but as president and first man in their own right. (Yes, as Michael Wolff reported in Fire and Fury, the duo, harboring off-the-chart delusions, “made an earnest deal” that “if sometime in the future the opportunity arose, [Ivanka would] be the one to run for president,” in an exchange that we can only assume involved Ivanka putting her finger to Kushner’s lips and whispering, “It’ll be me. I’ll be the president.”) So when ’Vanky’s dad decided to incite a violent insurrection on the U.S. Capitol in an attempt to overthrow the results of a free and fair election—and Princess Purses, badly miscalculating the situation, called the angry mob “patriots”—it didn’t jibe with the look they were going for. Subsequently, the couple fled to Florida in an apparent attempt to lay low.
And for the past 10 months, save for some presumably orchestrated photo-ops, they mostly have. But for people who clearly view themselves as royalty, not being able to attend society gatherings obviously chafes. With the one-year anniversary of that pesky little attack on democracy coming up, they apparently think enough time has passed that their association with one of the worst days in U.S. history is but a distant memory, and it’s now appropriate to slither back onto the scene, as they did Tuesday night.
Judge rules Trump, children must comply with NY AG’s subpoena for testimony
BY HARPER NEIDIG – 02/17/22 03:18 PM EST
[Excerpts:]
“Today, justice prevailed,” the state attorney general said in a statement. “Donald J. Trump, Donald Trump, Jr., and Ivanka Trump have been ordered by the court to comply with our lawful investigation into Mr. Trump and the Trump Organization’s financial dealings. No one will be permitted to stand in the way of the pursuit of justice, no matter how powerful they are. No one is above the law.”
James’s office revealed last month that it had uncovered “significant” evidence that the Trump Organization has for years been falsifying the value of its assets for financial gain, including to win tax breaks and attract investors.
That revelation came as Trump fought to block her efforts in both state and federal court, while painting the investigation as a political witch hunt in the media.
Trump’s accounting firm, Mazars, said in a letter sent to the former president’s company last week that it could no longer vouch for the business’s financial statements for the past decade given the revelations from the attorney general’s investigation.
JARED KUSHNER AND DONALD TRUMP PROBABLY WON’T BE SPLITTING A MILKSHAKE WITH TWO STRAWS ANY TIME SOON
Ivanka Trump Testifies to House Panel Investigating Jan. 6 Attack
The former president’s daughter and adviser was in the West Wing with him as a pro-Trump mob stormed the Capitol. She is said to have tried to persuade him to call off the rioters.
Credit…Anna Moneymaker for The New York Times
It was not immediately clear how revelatory her testimony was for the committee, but those familiar with the interview said Ms. Trump did not seek to invoke any privilege — such as executive privilege or the Fifth Amendment, as other witnesses have done — and broadly, if not garrulously, answered the panel’s questions.
Ms. Trump was one of several aides who tried to persuade the president to call off the violence that ultimately injured more than 150 police officers and sent lawmakers and Vice President Mike Pence fleeing for safety, according to evidence gathered by the committee. She is not known to have been associated with the more extreme supporters of the former president who spread lies about widespread fraud after the 2020 election and planned efforts to try to keep him in power.
Her testimony came days after her husband, Jared Kushner, who was also a top adviser to Mr. Trump, sat for an interview and provided what one member of the panel described as “valuable” and “helpful” information.
“There were some things revealed, but we’ll just share that a little later,” Representative Bennie Thompson, Democrat of Mississippi and the chairman of the committee, said of Mr. Kushner’s testimony.
Ms. Trump and Mr. Kushner are among the highest-ranking Trump White House officials to testify before the committee. The interviews have been closed to the public as the panel conducts its work in secret.
Ms. Trump’s lawyers have been in talks with the committee since January, when it sent her a letter requesting voluntary testimony. In the letter, dated Jan. 20, the committee said it had heard from Keith Kellogg, a retired lieutenant general who was Mr. Pence’s national security adviser. Mr. Kellogg had described Mr. Trump’s refusal to condemn the violence as the mob engulfed the Capitol, despite White House officials — including Ms. Trump, at least twice — urging him to do so, the letter said.
Mr. Kellogg testified that the president had rejected entreaties from him as well as from Mark Meadows, his chief of staff, and Kayleigh McEnany, the White House press secretary. Mr. Kellogg then appealed to Ms. Trump to intervene.
“She went back in, because Ivanka can be pretty tenacious,” Mr. Kellogg testified.
Mr. Kellogg also testified that he and Ms. Trump had witnessed a telephone call in the Oval Office on the morning of Jan. 6 in which Mr. Trump pressured Mr. Pence to go along with a plan to throw out electoral votes for Joseph R. Biden Jr. when Congress met to certify the Electoral College results. The call to Mr. Pence was part of an effort to invalidate the 2020 election and give Mr. Trump a chance to stay in office.
Mr. Kellogg told the committee that the president had accused Mr. Pence of not being “tough enough” to overturn the election. Ms. Trump then said to Mr. Kellogg, “Mike Pence is a good man,” Mr. Kellogg testified.
Also on Tuesday, the committee said it had received 101 documents that the conservative lawyer John Eastman had tried to withhold, arguing that they were covered by attorney-client privilege. In an explosive court ruling that found Mr. Trump and Mr. Eastman “likely” committed federal crimes as they fought the 2020 election results, a federal judge in California ordered Mr. Eastman last week to turn over the documents — a decision Mr. Eastman said he would not fight.
Among the documents is a draft memo written for Rudolph W. Giuliani, Mr. Trump’s personal lawyer, that recommended Mr. Pence reject electors from contested states on Jan. 6. The judge, David O. Carter of the Central District of California, wrote that Mr. Eastman’s memo might have been “the first time members of President Trump’s team transformed a legal interpretation of the Electoral Count Act into a day-by-day plan of action.”
“The draft memo pushed a strategy that knowingly violated the Electoral Count Act, and Dr. Eastman’s later memos closely track its analysis and proposal,” the judge wrote. “The memo is both intimately related to and clearly advanced the plan to obstruct the joint session of Congress on Jan. 6, 2021.”The committee has interviewed more than 800 witnesses and plans to interview dozens more. Mr. Thompson told reporters on Monday that he had authorized five additional subpoenas that day.
Mr. Thompson said the committee had ruled out a subpoena for Mr. Pence, citing “significant information” it had received from two of his aides, Marc Short and Greg Jacob.
“There won’t be a subpoena,” Mr. Thompson said, adding, “We’ve been able to validate a lot of the statements attributed to President Trump and the vice president without his specific testimony.”
“There’s no effort on the part of the committee to get him to come in,” he said of Mr. Pence, adding: “We initially thought it would be important, but at this point we know that people broke in here and wanted to hang him. We know that his security detail had to protect him in an undisclosed location in the Capitol. We know the people who tried to get him to change his mind, about the count and all of that. So what is it we need?”
Mr. Thompson also indicated that the panel would not be likely to call Mr. Trump as a witness.
“I don’t know anything else we could ask Donald Trump that the public doesn’t already know,” Mr. Thompson said. “He ran his mouth for four years.”
Trump, two adult children scheduled to testify July 15 in New York AG investigation
Former President Trump and two of his adult children are scheduled to sit for depositions on July 15 in a probe by the attorney general of New York into Trump’s business dealings, according to a court filing Wednesday.
New York Attorney General Letitia James (D) and lawyers for the former president, Donald Trump Jr. and Ivanka Trump reached an agreement that will give former President Trump time to appeal if he wishes. The Trumps have until Monday to ask the state’s Court of Appeals to hear the case.
James has been investigating whether former President Trump inflated the Trump Organization’s property values for investors and then deflated them in federal tax documents. She has been pushing him to turn over documents and sit for a deposition for months, but he has has appealed her efforts in court. She first requested that he testify in the civil investigation in December.
Mother Jones Daily Newsletter
By Inae Oh
June 8, 2022
There’s a new report on MAGA world’s favorite nepotism babies that’s got me chuckling today.
No matter how vociferously Mr. Trump claimed otherwise, neither Mr. Kushner nor Ivanka Trump believed then or later that the election had been stolen, according to people close to them. While the president spent the hours and days after the polls closed complaining about imagined fraud in battleground states and plotting a strategy to hold on to power, his daughter and son-in-law were already washing their hands of the Trump presidency.
The report goes on to detail how, in the final days of the Trump White House, Jared Kushner would tell anyone who’d listen—and it looks like the New York Times sure did—that he and the wife essentially knew that Dad was a loser before it had been officially called, and that they’d leave even if Trump didn’t accept the results.
It’s hardly a coincidence that this latest one, which could help shield the couple from any accusation that they played a role in fomenting violence at the Capitol, is emerging just as the January 6 committee is presenting them as the hearings’ star attraction.
Plus, does it make Javanka look any better if they indeed bolted, allowing the likes of Rudy Giuliani and other conspiracy-addled morons to fuel election lies and eventually the attack on the Capitol? Nah. But head here for the only reason you should maybe read the latest drivel on Jared and Ivanka. I sincerely hope you LOL with me.
“[Federick] Douglass saw that the end of a republic begins on the day when the heroism of the struggle for equality yields to the cowardice of resentment. That day has not come. It is thought by many, lately, and said by some, that the republic has seen its best days, and that it remains for the historian to chronicle the history of its decline and fall. I disagree. Sparrows may yet cross the sky.”