A member of the House select committee investigating the January 6 Capitol riot said that former White House counsel Pat Cipollone corroborated former White House aide Cassidy Hutchinson’s testimony last month almost entirely.
Representative Jamie Raskin of Maryland told NBC News that Mr Cipollone corroborated the testimony of all previous witnesses when he testified before the select committee last week.
“Cipollone has corroborated almost everything that we’ve learned from the prior hearings,” he said. “I certainly did not hear him contradict Cassidy Hutchinson. … He had the opportunity to say whatever he wanted to say, so I didn’t see any contradiction there.”
Ms Hutchinson, a former aide to former White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows, made waves with her testimony last month wherein she said that former president Donald Trump wanted magnetometers removed from the area where he was giving a speech on the White House Ellipse, despite the fact he knew that some of his supporters were armed.
But it is unclear whether the committee asked Mr Cipollone about specifics of Ms Hutchinson’s testimony, such as when she said that Mr Cipollone said that if Mr Trump went to the Capitol, they could be charged with “every crime imaginable.”
Mr Raskin’s words echo those of fellow select committee member Representative Zoe Lofgren, who said that Mr Cipollone’s testimony “did not contradict” previous witnesses who testified before the committee.
Video clips from Mr Cipollone’s testimony will be played during the select committee’s hearing on Tuesday, which Mr Raskin said will detail “the craziest meeting in the Trump presidency” on 18 December 2020.
The select committee also recently delayed its final prime time hearing, which hadn’t been officially announced but was expected to happen on Thursday.
