Pat Cipollone, a former White House attorney for President Donald Trump, testified behind closed doors before the House Committee on Jan. 6 on Friday.
His interview comes more than a year as part of the commission’s investigation into the circumstances surrounding the January 6, 2021 attack on the United States Capitol, and after weeks of televised hearings. During those hearings, witnesses described Cipollone as one of the few figures who repeatedly witnessed Trump’s attempts to undo the 2020 election without participating. Although Cipollone appeared behind closed doors before the committee in April, that was not a formal statement.
Cipollone’s testimony can be associated in the public imagination with another former White House counsel who testified about possible crimes committed by a former president – John Dean. At the Watergate hearings, Dean testified against Richard Nixon and played a pivotal role in establishing the 37th president’s guilt in the scandal.
Cipollone, who is publicist, is unlikely to follow in Dean’s footsteps, but he can provide new details about what Trump was doing during the Capitol attack, as well as the political and legal efforts to secure Joe’s victory. Biden undo.
Who is Pat Cipollone?
Former Senator and twice Republican presidential Lead candidate Rick Santorum spoke to cafemadrid on Friday about his close friend Cipollone, describing the former defense attorney as “a fairly simple and upright man” who focused on his faith, his family and his job. The two met when their children went to school together and bonded over their common background.
“He’s a strong Catholic, I’m a strong Catholic,” Santorum said. “He’s an Italian, I’m an Italian, he’s a lawyer, I’m a lawyer. He is a conservative political person, I am a conservative political person.”
Santorum made it clear that no matter how Cipollone, a father of 10, is outside of the workplace, he believes Cipollone is a “straight shooter… the lawyer who tells you in a statement to simply answer the question and nothing more.” and someone “who is not only uninterested in fame but would be very happy never to see his name in print.”
But Cipollone will now see his name appearing in print all over the world. It represents a shocking change from the last time the former White House defense counsel took center stage in 2019, when he helped lead Trump’s defense in his first accusation† Then he made a bellicose legal strategy on behalf of his client.
Even before his time as Trump White House counsel, which began in 2018, Cipollone was… a pillar of Washington’s right-wing legal establishment† He worked for Attorney General Bill Barr in his first stint with the Department of Justice and was a corporate lawyer for the Knights of Columbus, the prominent Catholic fraternal organization, before becoming a name partner at a law firm earning $6.7 million in the year before joining the Trump administration. administration.
The University of Chicago law student’s ties to conservative circles are so deep that he was even the godfather to prominent Fox News personality Laura Ingraham when she converted to Catholicism. However, he comes from a more humble background. The son of an Italian immigrant, Cipollone was born in New York and grew up in the Bronx before graduating from a Catholic high school in Kentucky after his father’s factory job was transferred there.
What the January 6 Committee Wants to Learn from Pat Cipollone
The commission considers the former White House counsel a key witness who was in the room with Trump during his months-long efforts to undo the 2020 election. He was able to provide first-hand accounts of situations that other second-hand witnesses were aware of, as well as provide new information about Trump’s behavior and actions on Jan. 6.
Cipollone’s statement comes just over a week after former White House aide Cassidy Hutchinson’s surprising testimony before the committee on Jan. 6, and just over two weeks after that. Representative Liz Cheney (R-WY)the commission’s vice chair, pleaded with Cipollone to testify on national television, saying, “Our evidence shows that Pat Cipollone and his office were trying to do the right thing. They tried some of President Trump’s plans for Jan. 6. to stop.”
She continued: “We believe the American people deserve to hear from Mr. Cipollone personally. He should appear before this committee and we are working to secure his testimony.” Apparently her plea was successful.
The former White House attorney has been a regular feature of televised hearings until now. Hutchinson testified that Cipollone repeatedly warned Trump that the former president would face legal liability if he went to the Capitol on Jan. 6, and that she heard White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows explicitly tell Cipollone that Trump agreed with the crowd. who chanted “Hang Mike Pence.” outside the Capitol.
“You heard him, Pat, he thinks Mike deserves it, he doesn’t think they’re doing anything wrong,” Hutchinson testified, Meadows said. Furthermore, top Justice Department officials testified in another hearing that Cipollone also threatened to resign if Trump appoints Jeffrey Clark as acting attorney general and help stall transition efforts.
But this is just the surface of what Cipollone may know as the top White House attorney. The only question is how much he will share.
Cipollone’s lawyer did not respond to a request for comment from cafemadrid, and a Jan. 6 committee spokesman declined to comment.
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