Jan. 6 Committee Subpoenas Trump White House Counsel Pat Cipollone, Who Reportedly Is Open to a ‘Transcribed Interview’

Alex Wong/Getty Images

The House select committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol subpoenaed former President Donald Trump’s White House Counsel, Pat Cipollone on Wednesday.

Cipollone featured prominently in Tuesday’s bombshell testimony from Cassidy Hutchinson – a former top aide to Trump chief of staff Mark Meadows. The committee noted that Cipollone has “declined to cooperate” with past requests to go on the record and therefore was left no choice but to subpoena him.

CNN reported late on Wednesday that Cipollone would be open to a “transcribed interview,” according to a source close to him.

Hutchinson detailed multiple conversations she had with Cipollone ahead of Jan. 6. She testified that Cipollone urged her to do everything she could to keep then-President Donald Trump from going to the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6 as the Congress certified the 2020 presidential election and warned her they would face being charged with “every crime imaginable” if he did.

“‘We need to make sure that this doesn’t happen, this would be a really terrible idea for us. We have serious legal concerns if we go up to the Capitol that day,'” Hutchinson testified that Cipollone told her.

The committee noted that the legal concerns Cipollone relayed to those around him regarding Trump and Jan. 6 are at the heart of their desire for him to testify under oath.

“The Select Committee’s investigation has revealed evidence that Mr. Cipollone repeatedly raised legal and other concerns about President Trump’s activities on January 6th and in the days that preceded,” the committee said in a statement.

“Any concerns Mr. Cipollone has about the institutional prerogatives of the office he previously held are clearly outweighed by the need for his testimony,” the committee added, noting the historic nature of a White House counsel testifying under oath.