As violent insurrectionists stormed the Capitol Building in the hopes of overturning a free and fair election in January, those closest to former president Donald Trump saw the deadly riot as less of a threat to democracy and more of a PR nightmare. In a published excerpt from the forthcoming book Landslide: The Final Days of the Trump Presidency, by journalist Michael Wolff, Trump’s favorite child and then-senior advisor Ivanka Trump, described the insurrection as “an optics issue” — before later expressing shock, horror, and denouncing the rioters. Settling on that cavalier description of a riot that left five people dead, Ivanka Trump was said to have spent the majority of the day discussing “her children’s acceptance into a private school in Florida with a variety of people.”
It wasn’t until 3:15 p.m., an hour after rioters breached the Capitol Building and hours after they pushed past barricades, that Ivanka tweeted a plea to the insurrections, who she called “American patriots,” to “be peaceful.”
But that’s not the only reason Ivanka has made headlines again this week. The excerpt detailing how casually Ivanka, as well as others close to the twice-impeached president, took the insurrection came in the wake of a report published by Mother Jones today, showing that Ivanka Trump had lied during her sworn testimony in the inauguration scandal case.
The inauguration probe was launched last year when Karl Racine, Washington, D.C. attorney general, filed a lawsuit accusing Trump’s inauguration committee of misusing charitable funds to enrich Trump family members. In the case, Ivanka swore that she “didn’t have an involvement” in the planning of the inauguration, only that her “opinion was solicited” and she “would give feedback to my father or to anyone who asked my perspective or opinion.” But documents showed, per the same Mother Jones report, that “she was part of the decision-making for various aspects of the inauguration, including even the menus for events.”
This also comes after other recent reports noted that Ivanka and her Slenderman husband have supposedly worked to distance themselves from Donald Trump. According to a recent CNN report, which included information from 12 former Trump White House officials, former administration officials, family friends, and acquaintances, Ivanka “seeks a less complicated life for her family” and is “having to walk a fine line between embracing her father and distancing herself from his election lies.” But this only happened after Trump’s lost his power, and faded into the oblivion of a ranting blog.
It remains to be seen as to whether or not Ivanka will be held accountable for her comments regarding the insurrection, or for lying under oath about the inauguration. And while state and federal penalties for lying under oath vary, those who are found guilty can face up to five years in prison.
But to borrow a phrase from Ivanka’s stepmother, who knows a thing or two about “optics”: I really don’t care, do you?
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