Several people said they had been told the documentary focused on Trump’s legacy and would be a flattering portrait.
But 17 months later, this filmmaker, Alex Holder, has been summoned by the select committee of the House investigating the Capitol Hill uprising of January 6, 2021 and has delivered hours of his footage. This has made some of the former president’s orbit nervous, they told CNN, mainly because many don’t remember the full scope of his comments.
A Holder lawyer denies the Trumps had editorial control over the final product.
“The Trumps did not request, and were not granted, any editorial control over the series. On the contrary, Alex Holder said at the outset that he would have full editorial control. The Trumps also did not ask for any right of control. or even a review, so there is none, “Russell Smith said in a statement to CNN.
Holder’s “unprecedented” three-part docuseries on the 2020 election will be released on Discovery Plus, owned by CNN’s parent company, in late summer. The documentary includes unreleased images of the Trump family during the campaign and their reactions to the election result.
The children of the then president sat down for several interviews with the British filmmaker, who was there during the last weeks of Trump’s tenure. Ivanka Trump did three interviews, her husband Jared Kushner was interviewed twice and Eric Trump was interviewed twice, Holder told CNN. Donald Trump Jr. he was interviewed once for an hour, but the attempt to do a second interview with him did not come to fruition.
Several of the interviews, including that of Ivanka Trump, were done after Trump had lost the election, but because he was still contesting them. Most of Ivanka Trump’s interview focused on her relationship with her father, as well as a public comment on the ongoing legal challenges on the election. Trump Jr. he sat with Holder about three weeks before the election, another source said.
There is now some concern among certain figures about what was said on camera as filming hours have changed. A former aide downplayed the likelihood that something relevant to the committee would be said.
A person familiar with the matter said the interviews were orchestrated by Jason Greenblatt, Trump’s peace envoy to the Middle East who left the administration in 2019, but remained in close contact with senior officials . Greenblatt has not responded to CNN’s request for comment.
Holder sat down for a statement with the committee Thursday morning behind closed doors.