Cipollone’s Grand Jury Testimony Seen as Key to DOJ Jan. 6 Probe
(Bloomberg) -- Federal prosecutors investigating efforts by former President Donald Trump and his inner circle to overturn the 2020 election results have turned to the former president’s top White House attorney for what could be crucial inside-the-room testimony.
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Pat Cipollone has been subpoenaed to appear before a grand jury according to a person familiar with the summons who asked not to be identified. He is one of the highest-ranking Trump administration officials known to have been called before one of at least two grand juries in Washington scrutinizing the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the US Capitol.
Previously, Cipollone was a key witness before the House committee investigating the Capitol attack, revealing details of the activities of Trump and his allies before and during the insurrection.
There was no immediate response to a request for comment from Michael Purpura, a lawyer for Cipollone. It is uncertain how soon federal investigators want him to appear -- or if he already has -- and what information the prosecutors are seeking. The US attorney’s office for Washington, D.C., which is leading the investigation, declined to comment.
Previous story: Trump Insiders Recall How He Spurned Pleas to Act as Riot Raged
Cipollone’s subpoena was previously reported by ABC.
At least one of the federal grand juries is looking into a plan that was promoted by Trump legal adviser John Eastman and others to submit so-called alternate presidential elector slates from seven states.
Cipollone is known to have warned that would not be legal.
The idea was for former Vice President Mike Pence to introduce those illegitimate electors on Jan. 6 and use them to delay or block Biden’s victory, but Pence did not do so.
Cipollone’s closed-door testimony before the House committee, some of it later played in video during the panel’s public hearings, reflected first-hand accounts of being in the West Wing with Trump on Jan. 6 as rioters stormed the Capitol, and in the lead-up to the insurrection.
He did not answer all of committee’s questions -- sometimes citing executive privilege or other legal shields.
But his testimony and that of other witnesses placed Cipollone in key meetings as Trump allies -- and including sometimes the then-president himself -- discussed the ideas of sending Congress fake state elector slates to block Joe Biden’s election victory, or having federal official seize voting machines, or enlisting the Justice Department to pressure state officials to overturn their 2020 election results.
Cipollone told Trump allies that the alternate state elector strategy would be unlawful. That plan is a known focus of at least one of the current federal grand juries.
Former White House staffer Cassidy Hutchinson also provided the committee with a dramatic account of Cipollone raising concerns on Jan. 6 about the legal ramifications if Trump were to go with the mob of his supporters to the Capitol.
Cipollone’s subpoena follows recent testimony to a federal grand jury by then-Vice President Mike Pence’s former chief of staff, Marc Short.
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