Ivanka Trump, amid building controversy and chaos in the West Wing, hosted an anti-human trafficking roundtable discussion at the White House Wednesday.
Trump previously organized a listening session on the topic that she attended with her father, President Donald Trump, in late February.
The meeting came as questions surrounding Trump’s treatment of now-fired FBI Director James Comey’s investigation of former national security adviser Michael Flynn come into focus. White House staffers have been under great pressure to cope with the fallout and critics have questioned who is leading efforts to right the ship.
“We have been conducting interagency meetings to understand the scope of the issue (of human trafficking), as well as gathering recommendations from the academic, public and private sector,” Ivanka Trump, a top White House adviser, said in the Roosevelt Room. “Today, we bring an additional and critical group to the table, legislative leaders, to discuss concrete steps through legislation.”
A bipartisan, bicameral group of lawmakers joined Trump, including House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy and Democratic Sens. Amy Klobuchar and Heidi Heitkamp, as well as anti-human trafficking experts and leaders.
Next week is “Combating Trafficking and Child Protection Week” in Congress, Trump said, and nine pieces of legislation will directly address the issue.
On Tuesday, shortly after The New York Times reported on a memo from Comey in which detailed the President urging him to end the investigation into Flynn, Ivanka Trump posted a photo of son Theodore, 1.
Behind the scenes, Trump’s husband, Jared Kushner, is playing a key role in the planning of an eight-day, five-country foreign trip that begins Friday. Kushner, also a top White House adviser, usually avoids cameras and the past week has been no exception.
Last Thursday, he met with senators on Capitol Hill alongside national security adviser H.R. McMaster and deputy national security adviser Dina Powell to discuss the President’s first foreign trip, per Republican Sen. Bob Corker’s office. Kushner has acted as a primary coordinator with foreign governments to plan Trump’s schedule abroad.
Corker, who on Monday evening told reporters the White House was in a “downward spiral” in light of reports that Trump revealed sensitive intelligence to Russia’s foreign minister and US ambassador, was also at the White House Wednesday alongside Ivanka Trump.
Klobuchar, Corker and Heitkamp have long been working on the international and domestic issue of human trafficking in the Senate.
