A day after a key witness dropped "bombshell after bombshell" during a surprise hearing of the panel probing last year's insurrection at the U.S. Capitol, the committee on Wednesday subpoenaed former White House counsel Pasquale "Pat" Cipollone for "on-the-record testimony."
Cassidy Hutchinson — a former special assistant to Mark Meadows, former President Donald Trump's last chief of staff — testified Tuesday that Cipollone urged her to prevent Trump from joining a violent mob of his supporters at the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.
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As Hutchinson told the House select committee investigate the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol:
Mr. Cipollone said 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."
In a Wednesday morning tweet, Rep. Liz Cheney, R-Wyo., the committee's vice chair, referenced Hutchinson's testimony that Cipollone "had significant concerns" regarding Trump's activities that day and declared that "it's time" for him "to testify on the record."
The committee announced the subpoena Wednesday evening in a statement echoing Cheney's earlier messages.
While the Select Committee appreciates Mr. Cipollone’s earlier informal engagement with our investigation, the committee needs to hear from him on the record, as other former White House counsels have done in other congressional investigations.
— January 6th Committee (@January6thCmte) June 29, 2022
Cheney and the panel's chair, Rep. Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., said in the statement that "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."
"While the select committee appreciates Mr. Cipollone's earlier informal engagement with our investigation, the committee needs to hear from him on the record, as other former White House counsels have done in other congressional investigations," they added. "Any concerns Mr. Cipollone has about the institutional prerogatives of the office he previously held are clearly outweighed by the need for his testimony."
Thompson's letter to Cipollone on Wednesday explains that given his refusal to cooperate with the committee beyond an informal interview in April, "we are left with no choice but to issue you this subpoena."
Read more on Cassidy Hutchinson's testimony and the Jan. 6 committee:
