Cheney calls on ex-White House lawyer to testify before Jan. 6 panel

The House committee investigating the Jan. 6 riots at the Capitol is working to secure testimony from former Trump White House counsel Pat Cipollone, Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.) said Tuesday. 

“Our evidence shows that Pat Cipollone and his office tried to do what was right. They tried to stop a number of President Trump’s plans for Jan. 6,” Cheney, who is a vice-chair of the committee, said at the close of Tuesday’s hearing. 

“We think the American people deserve to hear from Mr. Cipollone personally. He should appear before this committee, and we are working to secure his testimony,” Cheney added. 

Cipollone served as White House counsel from October 2018 through the end of the Trump presidency, and he defended the former president during both of his impeachment trials. 

Cipollone’s name came up during the first public hearing the committee held earlier this month when former White House senior adviser Jared Kushner was shown testifying that he dismissed Cipollone’s threats to resign ahead of Jan. 6 as “whining.” 

“You know, him and the team were always saying, ‘Oh, we’re going to resign, we’re not going to be here if this happens, if that happens,’ so I kind of took it up to just be whining, to be honest to you,” Kushner said in private deposition. 

Members of Cipollone’s team, including Eric Herschmann, have testified to the committee in deposition shown in prior hearings that they felt legal theories floated by the likes of Rudy Giuliani and John Eastman had no legal standing and were potentially dangerous. 

Cheney signaled on Tuesday that future hearings will shed more light on what Cipollone said and did in the weeks before the Jan. 6 riots. 

“Our committee is certain that Donald Trump does not want Mr. Cipollone to testify here,” Cheney said.