Jan 6 Committee To Interview Ex White House Lawyer Pat Cipollone, Pressure Mounts On Donald Trump
The House Committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack will hear testimony Friday from Donald Trump's former White House counsel Pasquale "Pat" Cipollone.
The Select Committee chairs Reps. Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., and Liz Cheney, R-Wyo., subpoenaed Cipollone at the end of June. "Mr. Cipollone repeatedly raised legal and other concerns about President Trump’s activities on January 6th and in the days that preceded," read the subpoena.
Cipollone will testify via transcribed interview during the committee's next hearing on Friday. His testimony could provide more details about what happened before, during, and after the attempted insurrection.
Cipollone met with investigators for the committee last April but never gave a formally recorded deposition about his knowledge of the events in question.
"While the Select Committee appreciates Mr. Cipollone’s earlier informal engagement with our investigation, the committee needs to hear from him on the record, as other former White House counsels have done in other congressional investigations," the committee's letter to Cipollone reads.
According to ABC News, Cipollone's testimony could go into detail about actions taken by former Department of Justice official Jeffrey Clark, what Cipollone did the day of Jan. 6, and his interactions with Trump lawyer John Eastman and members of Congress post-2020 election.
The committee will also seek clarity on a meeting at the White House on Jan. 3 where Cipollone was present. At this meeting, Cipollone and others allegedly urged Trump not to replace the entirety of the Justice Department's leadership in order to have it investigate baseless voter fraud claims.
"Any concerns Mr. Cipollone has about the institutional prerogatives of the office he previously held are clearly outweighed by the need for his testimony," the committee added.
The committee subpoenaed Cipollone after the bombshell testimony of Cassidy Hutchinson, a former White House aide and assistant to Trump's chief of staff Mark Meadows.
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