Former White House Press Secretary Stephanie Grisham says former President Donald Trump held secret meetings in the East Wing residence of the White House in the days before the Capitol riot – and that former first lady Melania Trump would join them.
Grisham, who served as Melania's chief of staff before quitting her job on Jan. 6th, 2020, revealed that the former first lady was known for 'popping in' to meetings – in a comment that suggests she might have information about who her husband was meeting with amid his election overturn effort. The House committee investigating January 6 on Thursday reached out to Ivanka Trump seeking an interview.
'She may or may not have been sitting in on – she knew she was known for popping into meetings. So she probably knew what was going on as well,' Grisham told CNN Friday.
Grisham said Trump held the meetings amid 'paranoia' about leaks from his own White House staff in the final days of his administration.
Former first lady Melania Trump was known for 'popping in' to meetings the president held in the East Wing, her former chief of staff Stephanie Grisham said. She confirmed a report of secret meetings before Jan. 6th. 'So she probably knew what was going on as well,' she said
She described the secret meetings after testifying earlier this month before the House January 6 committee. She did not say what she told the panel during her interview. But she said a report about the meetings in the Guardian – which she said she did not participate in – was accurate.
'There were meetings taking place up there,' she said.
Among those coming to the meetings – where White House staffers might be frozen out from knowing who the president was talking to in the part of the White House where the first family lived – where the architects of Trump's election overturn effort, which Grisham termed 'bonkers little plans.'
'Well, that was the beauty of having meetings in the residence like that. And the president, the former president, did that often. He did that quite a bit because there was a lot of paranoia about leaks in the White House and so he’d just have people up to the residence,' Grisham told the network.
Grisham also described how she would obtain the information.
She says at first she was informed as to participants in East Wing meetings when she served as Melania Trump's chief of staff. But she said she would later be frozen out by White House chief of staff Mark Meadows.
Sometimes, a White House usher – a former Trump Organization employee – would tip her off about who was coming into the East Wing.
She told the network Friday that even when she didn't learn through the typical channels, 'Mrs. Trump would let me know, because maybe she wasn’t happy that people were in her home without her knowledge.'
The House panel has revealed an increasing interest in Trump's 'state of mind' on and leading up to Jan. 6th as it seeks to reconstruct the events around the Capitol riot.
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