Former White House counsel Pat Cipollone served under President Donald Trump and has agreed to testify before a House select committee.
The committee has spoken before with Cipollone. but only in an informal, limited scope. After weeks of negotiations to force him to testify under oath about his work during the last weeks of Trump’s presidency, The committee subpoenaed Cipollone last WednesdayThe former White House counsel agreed to testify on Wednesday.
Although Cipollone’s interview with the committee will not be aired live, it will be videotaped and transcribed, according to sources with knowledge of the matter. Although he is unlikely to testify at the public hearing, the January 6 committee could share portions of his testimony at a later time. some have speculated.
Trump condemned the subpoena by the committee last week, saying that if his former White House counsel testified, such a move would be unprecedented — a complaint that was errant, as John Dean, who was a former White House counsel to Richard Nixon, Nearly five decades ago, I testified at the Watergate hearings.
Cipollone’s testimony is considered critical by the committee, as he was actively engaged in behind-the-scenes discussionsTrump and his allies discussed ways to reverse the results for the 2020 presidential election. He was privy to discussions, for example, on a proposal by some in Trump’s orbit to seize voting machines from states the former president had lost, ostensibly to investigate false allegations of fraud that had already been debunked. Cipollone was also involved with discussions about plans to send letters to lawmakers through the Department of Justice urging them to seriously investigate false fraud claims.
After explosive testimony by Cassidy Hutchinson last week, an ex-aide to Trump chief of staff Mark Meadows, Cipollone was called to testify. Hutchinson, in a publicly broadcasted meeting with the committee recalled how Cipollone had objected to plans by the former president to encourage his supporters to go to the Capitol.
“We’re going to get charged with every crime imaginable,” Cipollone warned Meadows, according to Hutchinson’s account.
The news of Cipollone’s deal with the January 6 committee comes the same day the panel announced that another former White House aide, Sarah Matthews, would be testifying to the committeeTuesday, July 12
Matthews, who was a former deputy press secretary and resigned after the January 6 attack on the Capitol, will likely face questions regarding the attack on the Capitol. These questions include why Trump called his loyalists to gather that day and why he ordered the crowd to march toward Congress when it was in session.
