Former spokeswoman: ‘Trump held secret meetings before storming the Capitol’

“There have been meetings at the President’s Residence in the White House,” Grisham said Friday. This was previously reported to the commission of inquiry looking into the January 6, 2021 attack. “I have no understanding of what was discussed there,” Grisham said, though she believes then-chief of staff Mark Meadows was present as well as Trump’s legal advisers.

“Trump often held meetings in the living quarters because he feared ‘leaks’ in the White House,” Grisham said. “A very, very small circle attended those meetings. Melania Trump’s wife often attended such gatherings. She probably knew what was going on there too.”

The former press official assumes that more details about the meetings are in the White House documents. Trump had just suffered a defeat in the Supreme Court in the dispute over the release of the documents.

“I can tell Ivanka has often been the voice of reason,” Grisham said of Trump’s daughter Ivanka. The investigative committee also wants to question her as a witness and hopes to obtain information about events and conversations at the White House.

Grisham served as a spokeswoman for the former president’s wife from 2017 to 2019, before taking over as White House press secretary and director of communications for about nine months. Then she became a spokeswoman for Melania Trump again and for the chief of staff. She recently published a book about her time in the White House.