WASHINGTON – Pat A. Cipollone, who served as President Donald J. Trump’s White House attorney, was asked detailed questions Friday about pardons, false allegations of election fraud and the former president’s campaign against Vice President Mike Pence, according to three acquaintances. with his testimony before the House committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol.
The panel did not pressure him to corroborate or contradict the details of the explosive testimony of Cassidy Hutchinson, a former White House aide who captivated the country late last month with his account of an out-of-control president willing to accept violence and stopping at nothing to stay in power, people said.
During an approximately eight-hour closed-door interview in the O’Neill House office building, the panel covered part of the same ground it did during an informal interview with Mr. Onion in April. At Friday’s session, which took place only after Mr. Cipollone received a citation, the investigators focused primarily on Mr. Cipollone’s views. Cipollone about the events of January 6 and generally did not ask about his views on the accounts of other witnesses.
A person known with the testimony of Mr. Cipollone said he provided new information that helped underscore the committee’s view that Mr. Trump was left in office on January 6. Mr. Cipollone fought against the most extreme plans to cancel the 2020 elections, he reported. multiple witnesses.
Mr. Cipollone, who has long argued that his direct conversations with Mr. Trump is protected by executive privilege and attorney-client privilege, he invoked certain privileges by refusing to answer some of the committee’s questions.
Key revelations from the January 6 hearings
The panel recorded Mr. Cipollone on video with possible plans to use clips of his testimony at upcoming hearings. Helpers have begun to work out strategies on whether and where to adjust scripts to include key clips, one person said. The next hearing is scheduled for Tuesday.
In the interview, Mr. Cipollone was asked about Mr. Trump on a stolen election. The panel has asked similar questions to senior Justice Department officials, White House lawyers and Trump campaign officials, who have testified that they did not agree with the effort to cancel the 2020 election.
Mr. Cipollone also broke up with Mr. Trump in response to questions about the former president’s pressure campaign against Mr. Pence, which included personal meetings, a profane phone call and even a post on Twitter attacking the vice president while the rioters stormed the Capitol promising to hang him, people familiar with the testimony said.
The agreement of Mr. Cipollone to sit down for an interview before the panel had sparked speculation that his testimony could reinforce or contradict Ms. Hutchinson, who attributed some of the most condemned statements about Mr. Hutchinson’s behavior. Trump to Mr. Onion. For example, he stated that Mr. Cipollone told him on the morning of January 6 that Mr. Trump accompanying the crowd to the Capitol would have Trump officials “charged with every crime imaginable.”
Two people known for the actions of Mr. Cipollone said that day that he did not remember making that comment to Mrs. Hutchinson. These people said the committee knew before the interview that Mr. Cipollone would not confirm this conversation if asked. On Friday he was not asked about that specific statement, according to people familiar with the questions.
“Why do Pat Cipollone and his lawyers let the J6 Committee escape with its bribe from Cassidy Hutchinson’s perjury?” Mr. Trump’s eldest son, Donald Trump Jr., who has also testified in court, wrote on Twitter on Saturday. “Only cowards let the left intimidate them into sitting quietly instead of talking and telling the truth. Stop hiding in the background, Pat. Grow your spine and sign up.”
Al Sr. Cipollone was asked, however, about talks about presidential pardons.
Ms. Hutchinson has stated that on January 7, the day after the assault on the Capitol, Mr. Trump wanted to promise pardons for those involved in the attack, but Mr. Cipollone argued that the language that made this promise was removed from the comments the president had to deliver.
He has also testified that members of Congress and others close to Mr. Trump asked for pardons after the Jan. 6 violence.
An advisor to Mr. Cipollone declined to comment on his court appearance.
“He was honest with the committee,” California Rep. Zoe Lofgren, a California Democrat and panel member, told CNN on Friday. “He was careful in his answers, and I think he was honest in his answers.”
He added: “We got an additional view of the actual day, January 6.”
Mrs. Lofgren said Mr. Cipollone did not contradict other witnesses. “There were things I might not be present for or, in some cases, I couldn’t remember accurately,” he said.
Mr. Cipollone’s testimony came after he reached an agreement to testify before the court, which had pressured him for weeks to cooperate and issued a subpoena to him last month.
Mr. Cipollone witnessed key moments in Mr. Trump to overturn election results, including discussions about sending fake letters to state officials about election fraud and confiscation of voting machines. He was also in direct contact with Mr. Trump on Jan. 6 when rioters stormed the Capitol.
Mr. Trump has criticized Mr. Cooperation. Onion. On Thursday, he posted on his social media platform, Social Truth: “Why would a future president of the United States want to have sincere and important conversations with his White House lawyer if he thought there was even a small chance that this person, essentially? acting as the “lawyer” of the Country, may one day be brought before a partisan Committee and openly hostile to Congress. “