WASHINGTON — Former White House counsel Pat Cipollone has agreed to testify behind closed doors on Friday to the House committee investigating last year’s assault on the U.S. Capitol, a person familiar with the matter said.
Cipollone, who panel members say has emerged as a key witness into the activities of President Donald Trump and his allies before and during the Jan. 6 insurrection, has agreed to sit for a transcribed interview after being subpoenaed, the person said Wednesday.
“The Select Committee’s investigation has revealed evidence that Mr. Cipollone repeatedly raised legal and other concerns about President Trump’s activities on Jan. 6th and in the days that preceded,” Committee Chairman Bennie Thompson said in a statement last week.
Cipollone has emerged in recent weeks as a subject of interest by committee members who say he was at the center of a number of events related to the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection and then-President Donald Trump’s activities.
The interview will be recorded. A lawyer for Cipollone didn’t respond to a request for comment.
Cipollone did sit on April 13 behind closed doors for an “informal interview” by the committee — which was considered off the record, the committee has confirmed.
His portrayal by committee members has been as a public servant who performed admirably for the nation, if not heroically, on Jan. 6 and before.
During the committee’s fourth hearing on June 21, Vice Chair Liz Cheney publicly and directly sought to appeal Cipollone, noting, “It takes public servants, people who’ve made a commitment to our system, to defend our system.”
“Our committee is certain that Donald Trump does not want Mr. Cipollone to testify here,” she said. “Indeed, our evidence shows Mr. Cipollone and his office tried to do what was right; they tried to stop a number of President Trump’s plans for January 6.”
Testimony during a public hearing last week by former White House staffer Cassidy Hutchinson described how Cipollone had warned White House chief of staff Mark Meadows and others that a scheme to block certification of Joe Biden’s 2020 election victory over Trump was unlawful.
But Hutchinson provided even more dramatic testimony about events on Jan. 6, including recalling that Cipollone raised concerns about the legal ramifications if Trump were to go with the mob of his supporters to the Capitol after his rally that day.
“We’re going to get charges of every crime imaginable if we make that movement,” Hutchinson quoted him saying at the time.
