The House choose committee investigating the January 6 assault on the US Capitol has issued a subpoena commanding former Trump White House Counsel Pat Cipollone to offer proof in a deposition set for six July.
Mr Cipollone, who served as former president Donald Trump’s prime White House lawyer from 2019 to the top of his time period in 2021, met with committee investigators for a casual interview on 13 April, however has heretofore refused repeated requests for him to take a seat for a deposition or give proof in a public listening to.
In a press release, choose committee chairman Bennie Thompson and vice-chair Liz Cheney stated the panel’s year-long probe has surfaced proof displaying that Mr Cipollone “repeatedly raised legal and other concerns” about Mr Trump’s actions earlier than and through the assault on the Capitol by a mob of his supporters.
“While the Select Committee appreciates Mr Cipollone’s earlier informal engagement with our investigation, the committee needs to hear from him on the record, as other former White House counsels have done in other congressional investigations,” they wrote.
Mr Thompson and Ms Cheney added that “any concerns Mr Cipollone has about the institutional prerogatives of the office he previously held” — a reference to potential claims that his testimony is precluded by govt privilege — “are clearly outweighed by the need for his testimony”.
In a letter to Mr Cipollione, Mr Thompson and Ms Cheney stated the committee’s investigation “has revealed credible evidence” that the previous White House lawyer has info regarding issues “within the scope of the select committee’s inquiry,” reminiscent of “former PresidentTrump’s awareness of and involvement in activities undertaken to subvert the outcome of the 2020 presidential election, including the submission of fake electoral ballots to Congress … the attempted appointment of Jeffrey Clark as acting Attorney General, and efforts to interfere with the Congressional certification of the electoral results”.
“The Select Committee has continued to obtain evidence about which you are uniquely positioned to testify; unfortunately, however, you have declined to cooperate with us further, including by providing on-the-record testimony. We are left with no choice but to issue this subpoena,” they added.
The panel’s resolution to compel Mr Cipollone’s testimony comes simply over a day after a former Trump White House aide delivered bombshell testimony alleging that he was one of many aides who heard Mr Trump converse approvingly of rioters who had stormed the Capitol whereas calling for then-vice president Mike Pence to be hanged for his refusal to associate with the president’s efforts to illegally overturn his 2020 election defeat to Joe Biden.
Ms Hutchinson recalled seeing Mr Cipollone, the highest White House lawyer who had warned Mr Trump in opposition to touring to the Capitol, “barreling down the hallway” to Mr Meadows’ workplace, opening the door, and telling the White House chief of workers that the 2 of them wanted to see the president as a result of rioters had breached the Capitol’s defences.
“Mark looked up and said: ‘[Mr Trump] doesn‘t want to do anything,’” she stated.
In a separate videotaped deposition excerpt, she advised investigators that Mr Cipollone returned a short while later accompanied by a deputy, Eric Herschmann.
“I remember Pat saying something to the effect of ‘Mark, we need to do something more. They’re literally calling for the vice president to be [f***ing] hung,’” she recalled.
She stated Mr Meadows replied by telling the 2 attorneys that Mr Trump stated, “Mike deserves it”, and added that Mr Trump didn’t assume the rioters have been doing something unsuitable.
Source: www.impartial.co.uk