WASHINGTON — Pat Cipollone, who was former President Donald Trump's White House counsel, has been subpoenaed by a federal grand jury in its investigation into the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection, a source familiar with the matter said Wednesday.
The Justice Department is investigating then-President Donald Trump’s actions leading up to the riot at the U.S. Capitol as part of its criminal probe of efforts to overturn the 2020 election results, an administration official familiar with the investigation said last week, confirming a Washington Post report.
The probe, which is related to the department's wider investigation into efforts to overturn the election results, is not a criminal investigation of Trump himself, the official added.
The Justice Department declined to comment on the subpoena.
Cipollone cooperated with the House Jan. 6 committee's separate investigation last month. Cipollone, whom panel Vice Chair Liz Cheney, R-Wyo., has described as a critical witness, testified behind closed doors for more than seven hours.
The panel subpoenaed Cipollone after it heard bombshell testimony from Cassidy Hutchinson, a former top aide to Trump’s chief of staff at the time, Mark Meadows. Hutchinson detailed Cipollone's efforts to rein in Trump on Jan. 6 and the days preceding it.
A top Jan. 6 committee member has said Cipollone corroborated virtually all of the revelations from previous witnesses, including Hutchinson. It is unclear, however, whether investigators directly asked him about the specifics of some of the more explosive aspects of Hutchinson’s testimony.
Numerous video clips from the interview were played at the committee's public hearings last month.
At the panel's eighth public hearing, Cipollone said in recorded testimony that White House staff members wanted rioters to go home that day, and he suggested Trump did not.
Attorney General Merrick Garland told NBC News’ Lester Holt that the Justice Department’s probe is the “most wide-ranging investigation in its history” and that the department plans to prosecute anyone who was “criminally responsible for interfering with the peaceful transfer of power from one administration to another.”
ABC News was first to report on Cipollone’s Justice Department subpoena.
