Former White House counsel Pat Cipollone, who served under former President Donald Trump, has reached an agreement to testify before the House select committee investigating the January 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol building.
The committee has spoken with Cipollone before, but only in an informal, limited scope. After weeks of negotiations to impel him to speak under oath and in more depth about his work during the final weeks of the Trump White House, the committee finally subpoenaed Cipollone last week, leading the former White House counsel to agree 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. He is not expected to testify at a public hearing in the future, but the January 6 committee could share excerpts of his testimony at a later date, 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, testified during the Watergate hearings nearly five decades ago.
Cipollone’s testimony is considered critical by the committee, as he was actively engaged in behind-the-scenes discussions with Trump and his allies about how to overturn the results of 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 in discussions on plans to send letters to state lawmakers through the Department of Justice, urging lawmakers to take false claims of fraud seriously.
Calls for Cipollone to testify increased after explosive testimony last week from Cassidy Hutchinson, a former aide to former Trump chief of staff Mark Meadows. In her publicly aired meeting with the committee, Hutchinson 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 committee on Tuesday, July 12.
Matthews, who served as former deputy press secretary until resigning after the January 6 attack, will likely be asked questions relating to the mob that attacked the Capitol, including why Trump called on his loyalists to assemble that day, and why he instructed the crowd to march toward Congress as it was in session.
Truthout Is Preparing to Meet Trump’s Agenda With Resistance at Every Turn
Dear Truthout Community,
If you feel rage, despondency, confusion and deep fear today, you are not alone. We’re feeling it too. We are heartsick. Facing down Trump’s fascist agenda, we are desperately worried about the most vulnerable people among us, including our loved ones and everyone in the Truthout community, and our minds are racing a million miles a minute to try to map out all that needs to be done.
We must give ourselves space to grieve and feel our fear, feel our rage, and keep in the forefront of our mind the stark truth that millions of real human lives are on the line. And simultaneously, we’ve got to get to work, take stock of our resources, and prepare to throw ourselves full force into the movement.
Journalism is a linchpin of that movement. Even as we are reeling, we’re summoning up all the energy we can to face down what’s coming, because we know that one of the sharpest weapons against fascism is publishing the truth.
There are many terrifying planks to the Trump agenda, and we plan to devote ourselves to reporting thoroughly on each one and, crucially, covering the movements resisting them. We also recognize that Trump is a dire threat to journalism itself, and that we must take this seriously from the outset.
After the election, the four of us sat down to have some hard but necessary conversations about Truthout under a Trump presidency. How would we defend our publication from an avalanche of far right lawsuits that seek to bankrupt us? How would we keep our reporters safe if they need to cover outbreaks of political violence, or if they are targeted by authorities? How will we urgently produce the practical analysis, tools and movement coverage that you need right now — breaking through our normal routines to meet a terrifying moment in ways that best serve you?
It will be a tough, scary four years to produce social justice-driven journalism. We need to deliver news, strategy, liberatory ideas, tools and movement-sparking solutions with a force that we never have had to before. And at the same time, we desperately need to protect our ability to do so.
We know this is such a painful moment and donations may understandably be the last thing on your mind. But we must ask for your support, which is needed in a new and urgent way.
We promise we will kick into an even higher gear to give you truthful news that cuts against the disinformation and vitriol and hate and violence. We promise to publish analyses that will serve the needs of the movements we all rely on to survive the next four years, and even build for the future. We promise to be responsive, to recognize you as members of our community with a vital stake and voice in this work.
Please dig deep if you can, but a donation of any amount will be a truly meaningful and tangible action in this cataclysmic historical moment.
We’re with you. Let’s do all we can to move forward together.
With love, rage, and solidarity,
Maya, Negin, Saima, and Ziggy