Jan. 6 Panel Secures Interview With Cipollone

Private interview will happen this week
By Kate Seamons,  Newser Staff
Posted Jul 6, 2022 10:45 AM CDT
Cipollone Will Speak to Jan. 6 Panel
Pat Cipollone listens as then-President Donald Trump speaks during a coronavirus task force briefing in the Rose Garden of the White House on March 29, 2020, in Washington.   (AP Photo/Patrick Semansky, File)

The House committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack will resume its hearings next Tuesday, and while the public won't hear from the White House counsel to former President Trump, the New York Times reports the panel will hear from him in private on Friday. Pat Cipollone has reportedly agreed to sit for what a source tells the Times will be "a videotaped, transcribed interview." The panel has long sought Cipollone's cooperation and subpoenaed him to that end last week. He was present in the West Wing on Jan. 6 and reportedly resisted Trump's efforts to overturn the 2020 election during meetings in the weeks after the election.

Axios reports White House aide Cassidy Hutchinson testified before the committee that Cipollone had warned in advance of the riot that Trump and his aides could be charged with "every crime imaginable" if Trump participated alongside protesters at the Capitol. She also said that on Jan. 6, Cipollone told then-White House chief of staff Mark Meadows, "Mark, we need to do something more ... they're literally calling for the vice president to be f'ing hung." When Meadows responded that the president thought Pence deserved it, Hutchinson said Cipollone said something along the lines of "this is f'ing crazy, we need to be doing something more."

Still, the AP sounds a note of caution: "While his interview with the committee could prove to be a breakthrough, it remained unclear whether Cipollone would try to limit what he is willing to talk about. As the administration's chief lawyer, he could argue that some or all of his conversations with Trump are privileged." (More Pat Cipollone stories.)

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