Ivanka Trump’s political re-emergence would likely center on criminal justice reform work: report

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Ivanka Trump helped secure pardons and commutations for over 140 people in her father’s final days in office, and she could champion criminal justice reform in a new foray into politics. 

"It would not be surprising if it’s among the causes she champions in her next chapter," a source close to former President Trump’s oldest daughter told Axios.

Trump made headlines for the 11th-hour pardons, which included some people convicted of nonviolent offenses and certain allies of the president, such as Steve Bannon and Charles Kushner, Ivanka’s father-in-law.

Sources say that both Ivanka and Jared Kushner aggressively lobbied their father as he made his final decisions of who to grant clemency.

They say she attended Oval Office meetings and made calls from the West Wing, staying at the White House until 8:30 p.m. on the eve of President Biden’s inauguration to cobble together the final list of pardons and commutations.

The list was released after 1 a.m. on Inauguration Day. On that day, Ivanka spent hours calling the families of those for whom she advocated. 

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Ivanka worked with a number of non-governmental organizations that brought non-political pardon requests to her attention, according to Axios, and one such group, #Cut50, said she was their point of contact in the White House. 

Ivanka has "been very much involved in the criminal justice issues for a long time, going back to the First Step Act," Mark Holden, chairman of the board of Americans for Prosperity, told Axios. "It's great if she could continue doing it. … We need all the help we can get."

Holden said he wasn’t sure why the White House pardoned Trump allies like Bannon and Elliot Broidy, but stressed they "were not the people that we were working with or trying to get clemencies for."

Among those Ivanka lobbied for were Kyler Kimoto, who was convicted for involvement in a telemarketing scam that stole $43 million; April Coots and Charles Fragoso, both convicted of nonviolent drug offenses; Michael Harris, convicted of conspiracy to commit first-degree murder; and Chalana McFarland, convicted of money laundering, bank and wire fraud. 

Ivanka has brushed off rumors that she intends to launch a primary challenge against Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., in 2022. Bannon recommended she do so on a recent podcast. 

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"The second-most fire-breathing populist in the White House was Ivanka Trump," the president’s one-time adviser said.

If Rubio voted to certify President Biden’s election  (which he did), Bannon said: "I strongly believe and would strongly recommend that Ivanka Trump immediately … file and run for the Senate and primary Marco Rubio in Florida."

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