July 6 (UPI) — Pat Cipollone, former President Donald Trump‘s White House counsel, will testify before the House Jan. 6 committee during a closed-door session on Friday, according to news reports.
ABC News, The New York Times and The Washington Post reported that Cipollone will give testimony before the panel investigating the attack on the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.
According to other witnesses, Cipollone voiced objections to Trump floating the idea of seizing of voting machines after he lost the 2020 presidential election to Joe Biden.
The reports said Cipollone will sit for a videotaped, transcribed interview. The committee, which subpoenaed Cipollone last week, has been eager to hear testimony from the former White House counsel primarily due to his access to Trump and his objecting to Trump’s efforts to overturn Biden’s victory.
“The Select Committee’s investigation has revealed evidence that Mr. Cipollone repeatedly raised legal and other concerns about President Trump’s activities on Jan. 6th and in the days that preceded,” panel Chair Rep. Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., and Vice Chair Rep. Liz Chaney, R-Wyo., said in a joint statement last month.
“The committee needs to hear from him on the record, as other former White House counsels have done in other congressional investigations.”
Other witnesses have testified that Cipollone constantly clashed with Trump and others in his administration over the efforts to nullify Biden’s electoral win, which directly led to the attack at the Capitol by a pro-Trump mob.
The committee is expected to hold more public hearings in the coming weeks. They have held several so far, but perhaps none more dramatic and explosive than the last hearing on June 28, at which former aide Cassidy Hutchinson relayed a number of damning claims about Trump and his actions on Jan. 6.
