Vox Sentences - Spill it, Ivanka

The House January 6th Committee and the New York Attorney General zero in on Ivanka Trump; Chevron and TotalEnergies will pull out of Myanmar over the military junta's human rights abuses.

Tonight's Sentences was written by Ellen Ioanes.

Trump Organization and January 6 probes are after Ivanka

Alex Edelman / AFP via Getty Images

• The House January 6th Select Committee requested testimony on Thursday from former president Donald Trump’s daughter Ivanka, who was one of his senior advisers when he was in the White House, regarding her conversations with her father and members of his staff as his fans marched on the Capitol. On Tuesday, the New York State Attorney General’s Office issued her a subpoena in its investigation into the Trump Organization’s alleged consistent and widespread fraudulent activity. [AP / Jill Colvin and Farnoush Amiri]
• In a letter to Trump, Committee Chair Bennie Thompson outlined instances in which Ivanka had allegedly witnessed her father trying to persuade then-Vice President Mike Pence to overturn the election and keep the elder Trump in office. She is also alleged to have attempted to convince her father to call off the insurrectionists and perhaps has the most insight into her father’s behavior as the attack unfolded. [NYT / Luke Broadwater]
• New York State Attorney General Tish James’s civil probe into the Trump Organization, which has already scrutinized more than 900,000 documents and interviewed former Trump Organization employees, alleges that Ivanka Trump, in her role with the company, would have at least been witness to patterns of alleged fraud the investigation has thus far turned up. “Donald Trump, Donald Trump, Jr., and Ivanka Trump have all been closely involved in the transactions in question, so we won’t tolerate their attempts to evade testifying in this investigation,” James said in a statement Tuesday. [Washington Post / Shayna Jacobs, Jonathan O’Connell, and Josh Dawsey]
• James’s probe has uncovered a number of alleged discrepancies between the worth of some of Trump’s assets and the Trump Organization’s valuing of those assets. For example, an apartment that Ivanka leased from the family company was valued at $25 million — but she had an option to buy it for $8.5 million. [Business Insider / Tom Porter]
• Her father’s confidante, a position that once gave Ivanka Trump incredible benefits and access, is a liability now that her father is out of office. Since Inauguration Day 2021, Ivanka and her family have attempted to lie low, but with the attorney general’s office and the January 6 committee both seeking her testimony, that strategy might not work much longer. [Daily Beast / Jose Pagliery and Asawin Suebsaeng]

Two energy multinationals say they’re leaving Myanmar

• Multinational energy companies TotalEnergies and Chevron have announced that they’ll stop operations in Myanmar over human rights abuses by the military junta in power there. “The situation, in terms of human rights and more generally the rule of law, which have kept worsening in Myanmar since the coup of February 2021, has led us to reassess the situation,” TotalEnergies said. [Reuters / Benjamin Mallet and Florence Tan]
• The gas field that the companies are leaving behind, the Yadana, supplies energy to about half the city of Yangon, Myanmar’s capital city, and to Thailand. It has also been the subject of controversy itself since the project began in the 1990s, with local activists fighting the project in US and European courts starting in 1996. [NYT / Stanley Reed]
• One such Burmese activist, Ka Hsaw Wa, a member of the Karen ethnic minority and now the executive director of EarthRights International, told Vox in a phone interview that he’s thrilled with Friday’s announcement and that “it’s going to change the situation” and drain the ruling junta of resources. “Their money is funding military terrorists,” he said, which is leading to more multinational companies refusing to do business in Myanmar.
• The companies combined own about 60 percent of the stake in the Yadana project, with a Thai energy supplier and Myanmar’s state oil and gas concern holding the rest. Although their profits from the Yadana gas fields account for only a tiny percentage of the companies’ annual profits, natural gas projects bring in about $1 billion in revenue for the military junta every year. [Guardian / Rebecca Ratcliffe]
• TotalEnergies, a French company, has the largest stake in the project and runs everyday operations for the gas field, while the state-owned Myanma Oil and Gas Enterprise collects revenue for the state. TotalEnergies has said it will depart within six months, and Chevron has not set a timeframe for its departure. [AP / Lori Hinnant]

A Saudi-led airstrike in Yemen has killed at least 70 and wounded at least 138, and cut off internet in the entire country. [NYT / Vivian Yee]

• Singer Meat Loaf, born Marvin Lee Aday, has died at the age of 74. [CNN / Melissa Alonso]
• A new California bill proposes allowing kids age 12 and up to get vaccinated without parental consent. [Politico / Victoria Colliver]
• A Tongan man washed away in a tsunami following the eruption of a volcano near his home survived 26 hours at sea. [Guardian / Lagipoiva Cherelle Jackson]

What’s a four-letter nickname for the newspaper Jeff Bezos owns?

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"No more stolen election talk.”

[Fox News host Sean Hannity in a text message to Donald Trump’s press secretary Kayleigh McEnany on January 7, 2021, as quoted in the House Select Committee on January 6th’s letter to Ivanka Trump]

Jerusalem Demsas and Dylan Matthews talk with Joey Politano (@JosephPolitano), economics blogger and self-described "mid-tier take-haver," to go over one big question on people’s minds right now: Are corporations profiting off of inflation?  [Spotify]

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