Former White House counsel Pat Cipollone at the Thomas P. O'Neill Jr. House Office Building, in Washington, on July 8.Drew Angerer/Getty Images
Former White House counsel Pat Cipollone arrived Friday on Capitol Hill for a private interview with the Jan. 6 committee about his role trying to prevent then-President Donald Trump from challenging the 2020 presidential election and joining the violent mob that laid siege to the Capitol.
Mr. Cipollone had been a sought-after witness after bombshell testimony revealed his apparently desperate and last-ditch efforts to prevent Mr. Trump’s actions. The panel was told he warned the defeated president would be charged with “every crime imaginable” if he went to the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, trying to stop the certification of Joe Biden’s election. He was subpoenaed for his testimony.
But the conservative attorney, once a staunch presidential confidant who had defended Mr. Trump during his first impeachment trial, had been reluctant to appear formally for an on-record interview. Like other former White House officials, he could claim his counsel to the Republican president is privileged information he is unwilling to share.
The panel said Mr. Cipollone is “uniquely positioned to testify” in a letter accompanying the subpoena issued last week.
“Mr. Cipollone repeatedly raised legal and other concerns about President Trump’s activities on January 6th and in the days that preceded,” chairman Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., said in a statement. “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.”
Mr. Cipollone’s central role came into focus during a surprise committee hearing last week when former White House aide Cassidy Hutchinson described his repeated efforts to stop Mr. Trump from joining the mob at the Capitol.
Ms. Hutchinson said Mr. Cipollone urged her to persuade her boss, chief of staff Mark Meadows, not to let Mr. Trump go to the Capitol.
Ms. Hutchinson testified that she was told Mr. Trump was irate when he was ultimately prevented by his security team from going to the Capitol that day. The Secret Service has disputed parts of her account detailing Mr. Trump’s actions when she said he lashed out at the driver in the presidential motorcade.
Mr. Cipollone was also part of a key meeting on the Sunday before the Jan. 6 attack, with Justice Department officials at the White House threatening to resign if Mr. Trump went ahead with plans to install a new acting attorney general who would pursue his false claims of voter fraud.
Mr. Cipollone and his lawyer, Michael Purpura, who also worked at the Trump White House, did not respond to requests for comment.
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