Ivanka Trump says she thought her dad had lost re-election 'probably prior' to the Electoral College voting on December 14, 2020

• Ivanka Trump told the January 6 committee that she thought the election was over long before 2021.
• Trump said that the Electoral College vote on December 14, 2020, was a key date for her.
• Her comments were disclosed during Tuesday's House January 6 hearing.
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Ivanka Trump told the House January 6 committee that she believed her father had lost the 2020 presidential election likely before the Electoral College took its formal vote on December 14, 2020.

"Was that an important day for you? Did that affect your planning or your realization as to whether or not there was going to be an end to this administration?" an attorney for the committee asked Ivanka in videotaped testimony about the Electoral College vote.  

"I think it was my sentiment, probably prior as well," Ivanka, who was also a top White House advisor, said in response. 

Ivanka's comments during the video deposition were played for the first time on Tuesday. The committee presented a series of witnesses who said that they believed Trump's efforts to contest the election results were closed off by the Electoral College vote long before the January 6 Capitol riot.

Other snippets from Ivanka Trump's deposition were played during previous hearings. She also told the committee that she "accepted" then-Attorney General Bill Barr's comments that there was no widespread election fraud that would have changed Biden's victory. 

While the media often calls the presidential race early, the next president of the US is not formally certified until Congress opens and counts the Electoral College results on January 6. The college itself meets in state capitols around the country to formally declare their votes on December 14.

Both steps are largely viewed as formalities as both take place after each individual state certifies its respective election results.

Trump and his team contested the election results for months, but after their challenges were dismissed in state and federal court they had few avenues left. Ultimately, Trump and his legal team turned their attention to a pressure campaign targeting Vice President Mike Pence to either delay the formal counting on January 6 or to unilaterally throw out the results and declare Trump the winner.

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