Former Trump adviser Kellyanne Conway sits for 5-hour interview with January 6 committee

By Annie Grayer, Zachary Cohen, Jamie Gangel and Sara Murray, CNN

The House select committee investigating the January 6, 2021, insurrection asked Kellyanne Conway, who served in the White House as a senior adviser to then-President Donald Trump, about her conversations with Trump after his election loss in an interview that lasted roughly five hours on Monday, two sources familiar with the committee’s work told CNN.

The committee asked specifically about her reportedly telling acquaintances that Trump acknowledged to her that he knew he had lost the 2020 presidential election, according to one source with knowledge of the matter.

The exchange was first reported in Jonathan Lemire’s book “The Big Lie” in which he recounts that off camera Trump wondered “aloud to Kellyanne Conway how he could ‘lose to f***ing Joe Biden.'”

When asked if Trump ever admitted to her that he knew the 2020 presidential election was not stolen, Conway told reporters, “I don’t reveal those conversations. I think if they want to know that from him, they should depose him.” When pressed by reporters that the committee has subpoenaed Trump for documents and testimony, Conway said, “they asked him so late though. I think the committee’s almost wrapped up.”

Pressed further on why Trump wouldn’t talk to the committee, Conway posed, “why would he do that?”

In response to a question about what conversations she had with Trump or those in his orbit on January 6, Conway told reporters, “I won’t talk about that because I may have talked about that here,” referring to her interview.

After the interview Conway told reporters that she did not invoke her right against self-incrimination under the Fifth Amendment. Conway also said she has not heard from the Justice Department.

In her book, “Here’s the Deal,” Conway revealed that she called the Trump White House on January 6 to ask the former president to intervene and call the rioters at the Capitol off.

Asked if she discussed these conversations with the committee, Conway said, “I can’t say what I was asked about in the interview,” but when pushed on whether Trump received her message that day she added, “it was relayed to the president yes.”

Asked when she last spoke with Trump, Conway said: “Last week he called me.” She also told reporters that she had not told Trump that she was meeting with the committee.

“He doesn’t know that from me, he may know that from you,” Conway told reporters in reference to whether Trump was aware of Monday’s meeting.

Conway, historically a staunch supporter of Trump, acknowledged in her book that Trump lost the 2020 presidential election and said he received bad advice from those around him.

“Despite the mountains of money Trump had raised, his team simply failed to get the job done. A job that was doable and had a clear path, if followed,” Conway wrote in her memoir, which was published in May. “Rather than accepting responsibility for the loss, they played along and lent full-throated encouragement (privately, not on TV) when Trump kept insisting he won.”

Conway’s interview demonstrates the committee is still working to complete its investigation while simultaneously working to finish its final report ahead of the Republican takeover of Congress in January.

Members of the committee are in active discussions about what to include in the panel’s final report, which they’ve said will be released by the end of the year. The members expect it will focus on issues beyond how Trump’s efforts to prevent the peaceful transfer of power fueled the violence that day.

The report will effectively serve as the committee’s closing statement but with less than two months left before the panel expires, as Republicans will take over the majority of the House in January.

“I would like to see our report be as broad and inclusive as possible,” committee member Rep. Adam Schiff, a California Democrat, told CNN on Sunday. “We are discussing as a committee among the members what belongs in the body of the report, what belongs in the appendices of the report, what is beyond the scope of our investigation, and we’ll reach those decisions in a collaborative manner.”

This story and headline have been updated with additional developments.

The-CNN-Wire
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