January 6 committee: Former White House counsel Cipollone to testify under subpoena
Pat Cipollone was White House counsel under the Trump administration
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Former White House counsel Pat Cipollone has agreed to testify before the House January 6 Commission in a private meeting on Friday, Fox News has confirmed.
Reports had indicated that Cipollone was subpoenaed for an interview that would be transcribed.
Cipollone was White House counsel under the Trump administration. His interview comes after former White House aide Cassidy Hutchinson testified before the committee that Cipollone was concerned that if Trump's January 6 rally led to a march on the Capitol, it would create legal exposure for possible criminal charges such as obstruction or inciting a riot.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Hutchinson testified that Cipollone restated his concerns the morning of Jan. 6 that if Trump did go to the Capitol to try to intervene in the certification of the election, "we're going to get charged with every crime imaginable."
PAT CIPOLLONE, FORMER WHITE HOUSE COUNSEL FOR TRUMP, SSUBPOENAED BY JAN. 6 COMMITTEE
The committee said Cipollone could have information about several supposed efforts by Trump allies to subvert the Electoral College.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Rep. Adam Kinzinger, R-Ill., who sits on the committee, said last month that Cipollone told the committee he tried to intervene when he heard Trump was being advised by Jeffrey Clark, a former Justice Department official who wanted to push false claims of voter fraud. Federal agents recently seized Clark's cell phone and conducted a search of his Virginia home.
FILE: White House counsel Pat Cipollone listens as President Donald Trump speaks during a coronavirus task force briefing in the Rose Garden of the White House, March 29, 2020, in Washington. (AP Photo/Patrick Semansky, File)
Clark had drafted a letter for key swing states that was never sent but would have falsely claimed the department had discovered troubling irregularities in the election. Cipollone was quoted by one witness as having told Trump the letter was a "murder-suicide pact."
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He had previously sat for an informal interview with the committee on April 13, but then refused to give testimony on the record until they issued a subpoena.
Fox News' Bradford Betz, Timothy H.J. Nerozzi and The Associated Press contributed to this report.