Pat Cipollone, the White House counsel who fiercely defended former President Trump in his first impeachment trial, is gearing up to be the star witness against the former president as the House Jan. 6 committee winds down its public hearings with a detailed look at Trump’s three hours of inaction as the Capitol riot unfolded.
Cipollone has been a reluctant participant in the investigation, rebuffing initial requests for an under-oath interview with the House select committee, which was able to secure his eleventh-hour cooperation only via subpoena.
Cipollone’s deposition: His marathon deposition on July 8 has proven a gold mine for the panel, providing confirmation for some of the core allegations to emerge from the yearlong probe into the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol insurrection and Trump’s role in provoking it.
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Not only did Cipollone tell investigators that Trump’s claims of widespread voter fraud were fallacious, but also that the president’s legal team told him repeatedly that the election was lost and he should concede defeat.
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Cipollone also verified a White House visit on Dec. 18, 2020, from several prominent figures in the "Stop the Steal" movement who sought to convince Trump to have the Pentagon seize voting machines in battleground states.
Growing frustrations: In 2019 and 2020, when Cipollone fought to defend Trump from charges that he’d abused his powers in dealings with Ukraine, Democrats in Congress railed against the reserved White House counsel, not least for his argument that the administration had no obligation to cooperate with the congressional investigation.
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More than two years later, the Jan. 6 committee had been similarly frustrated with Cipollone’s refusal to participate under oath. In its public pleas for Cipollone’s cooperation, investigators stressed that they saw him as one of the few voices in the White House that day pushing for Trump to take some kind of action.
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“Our evidence shows that Mr. Cipollone and his office tried to do what was right — they tried to stop a number of President Trump’s plans for Jan. 6,” Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.), vice chair of the committee, said during a hearing last month. “But we think the American people deserve to hear from Mr. Cipollone personally.”
Cipollone on Jan. 6: Cipollone was one of the few to speak directly with Trump on the day of the riot, allowing him to fill gaps left by former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows, who turned over his text messages but refused to sit down for a deposition with the panel’s investigators, even under subpoena.
Cipollone told the committee that he pushed back on White House plans to seize voting machines during the Dec. 18, 2020, meeting.
“That’s a terrible idea for the country,” he said. “I don’t understand why we even have to tell you why that’s a bad idea for the country.”
Who else could be featured? Other witnesses who may be featured in the next hearing include Ivanka Trump, who is said to have spoken with her father at least twice on Jan. 6, according to earlier testimony.
Sarah Matthews, a former White House deputy press secretary, is also reportedly in negotiations with the committee to appear publicly.
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