WASHINGTON — Pat Cipollone, who served as Donald Trump's White House counsel, is expected to testify behind closed doors on Friday with the House committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol, a person familiar with the situation said Wednesday.
The interview with Cipollone will be transcribed and videotaped, according to a person familiar with the matter. His appearance before the panel comes as a result of a subpoena issued to him last week.
The committee didn't return a request for comment.
Cipollone, considered a critical witness whose testimony lawmakers have suggested is a missing link, previously met with committee investigators in April for an informal interview.
The former White House lawyer had previously resisted cooperating with and speaking formally with the panel. Rep. Liz Cheney of Wyoming, the committee's ranking Republican, has repeatedly called on Cipollone publicly in recent weeks to speak with the panel on the record.
Chairman Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., subpoenaed Cipollone last Wednesday, a day after former White House aide Cassidy Hutchinson offered explosive testimony to the committee about Trump and his allies in the run-up to and on Jan. 6.
“The Select Committee’s investigation has revealed evidence that Mr. Cipollone repeatedly raised legal and other concerns about President Trump’s activities on January 6th and in the days that preceded,” Thompson and Cheney said in a statement last week.
Hutchinson testified last week that Cipollone warned her not to allow Trump to go up to the Capitol on Jan. 6 as Vice President Mike Pence was set to certify the election results before Congress.
On the morning of Jan. 6, before Trump’s rally, she said she saw Cipollone near the White House. “Mr. Cipollone said something to the effect of, ‘Please make sure we don’t go up to the Capitol, Cassidy, keep in touch with me. We’re going to get charged with every crime imaginable if we make that movement happen.’”
