Donald Trump’s former White House counsel Pat Cipollone to testify before January 6th Committee

Pat Cipollone, who allegedly called a plan to declare the 2020 election fraudulent a ‘murder suicide pact’, to appear before January 6th Committee.

Then-White House Counsel Pat Cipollone walks up the steps of Capitol Hill with Supreme Court nominee Judge Amy Coney Barrett and then-Vice President Mike Pence. Picture: AFP

Donald Trump’s former White House counsel Pat Cipollone, who allegedly called a plan to declare the 2020 election fraudulent a “murder suicide pact”, is expected to testify under oath before the January 6th Committee on Friday (Saturday AEST), as the high-profile committee weighs whether to recommend criminal charges against Mr Trump.

The committee subpoenaed Mr Cipollone following last Tuesday’s explosive testimony from Cassidy Hutchinson – a former aide to then White House chief of staff Mark Meadows – which suggested Mr Trump knew the January 6th rioters were armed and wanted to go to Capitol Hill during riots despite a warning from Mr Cipollone.

Ms Hutchinson said Mr Cipollone, who joined the White House as counsel in December 2018, had told her on the morning of the riots “something to the effect of: Please make sure we don’t go up to the Capitol, Cassidy. Keep in touch with me. We’re going to get charged with every crime imaginable if we make that movement happen”.

NEW: Pat Cipollone, who served as former President Trump’s White House counsel, is expected to testify behind closed doors on Friday with the House Jan. 6 committee, a person familiar with the situation says. pic.twitter.com/Oe8d0eAGLJ

— MSNBC (@MSNBC) July 6, 2022

“Our evidence shows that Mr Cipollone and his office tried to do what was right. They tried to stop a number of President Trump‘s plans for January 6th,” Republican Committee Vice Chair Liz Cheney said at the previous hearing, before securing Mr Cipollone’s agreement to testify.

According to multiple reports, Mr Cipollone, who initially had been reluctant to co-operate with the committee, citing presidential privilege, will testify Friday morning behind closed doors and is expected to face questions not only on events of January 6th but also on Mr Trump’s alleged efforts to overturn the November 2020 election.

“He clearly has information about concerns about criminal violations, concerns about the president going to the Capitol that day, concerns about the chief of staff having blood on his hands if they didn’t do more to stop that violent attack on the Capitol,” said Democrat Committee member Adam Schiff over the weekend.

A strong defender of Mr Trump during his first impeachment in early 2020, Mr Cipollone reportedly also tried to disabuse Mr Trump of the idea the vice president had the constitutional power to dismiss the election result, a theory being pushed by another adviser, John Eastman, in weeks leading up to January 6th.

Widely seen among Republicans as a partisan effort to smear the former president, the Committee has in its series of public hearing beginning June 8th presented evidence from former White House staff and family members that Mr Trump pressured state and federal officials to overturn the election without evidence of significant fraud.

The Committee, made up of seven Democrats and two Republicans, has been coy over whether it intends to recommend criminal charges against the former president, which ultimately only the Department of Justice can pursue.

“I think we may well as a committee have a view on that,” Ms Cheney said earlier this week.

The House of Representatives voted in December to hold Mr Meadows in contempt of Congress for defying a subpoena from the Committee, which has scheduled its seventh and penultimate public hearing on 12th July, after which a final committee report is expected.

Separately, a Georgia grand jury charged with investigating the former president’s alleged attempts to interfere with that state’s election results subpoenaed seven of the former president’s closest advisers on Tuesday, including Rudy Giuliani, the former mayor of New York, and prominent Republican senator Lindsey Graham.

“Should it stand, the subpoena issued today would erode the constitutional balance of power and the ability of a member of Congress to do their job,” a statement from Senator Graham’s lawyers said on Wednesday, suggesting at least one of those called will not comply.

Mr Cipollone’s appearance on Friday will come amid growing speculation Mr Trump could announce his candidacy for the 2024 presidential election in July, apparently unfazed by the growing and critical scrutiny of his behaviour on January 6th, which could lead to a recommendation to the Department of Justice to prosecute the former president.

National polling over the last few days of June suggested most voters believed the January 6th Committee was biased (53 per cent) and Congress should be focused on other issues instead (63 per cent), according to the Harvard-Harris poll of 1,300 voters.

Two thirds said they thought the hearings were dividing the nation rather than healing, although more than 60 per cent said Mr Trump should not run again for a second term in 2024.