Politics

Donald Trump Jr. Is Going to Sit Down With the Jan. 6 Committee

The former president's eldest son texted Mark Meadows about overturning the election, and about getting his dad to call off the rioters storming the Capitol

April 21, 2022

Donald Trump Jr., speaks at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC), on Sunday, Feb. 27, 2022, in Orlando, Fla. John Raoux/AP

Donald Trump Jr. is set to meet voluntarily with the Jan. 6 committee in the next few days, multiple outlets reported on Thursday.

The committee has spoken recently with several members of the Trump family — though not former President Trump himself. Kimberly Guilfoyle, Trump Jr.’s fiance and a former Trump campaign adviser, had a second meeting with the committee this week. (She was issued a subpoena after originally planning to cooperate.) Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner were interviewed earlier this month.

The committee will likely be interested in Trump Jr.’s text to then-White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows two days after the 2020 election. Trump Jr. wrote that there were “multiple paths” to overturning the election. Trump Jr.’s strategies, which included deploying fraudulent pro-Trump electors and filing meritless lawsuits, resemble those of others who have been subpoenaed by the committee, such as conservative lawyer and coup memo author John Eastman, former Trump lawyer Jenna Ellis, and, of course, Rudy Giuliani.

Lawmakers on the panel will also surely ask about Trump Jr.’s communications with the White House on Jan. 6, including his messages to Meadows. As the insurrection was unfolding, the president’s eldest son wrote that his father needed to “condemn this shit ASAP.”

“We need an oval office address,” Trump Jr. also texted Meadows. “He has to lead now. It has gone too far and gotten out of hand.”