Pat Cipollone, President Donald Trump’s former White House counsel.
Alex Wong/Getty Images
- Rep. Liz Cheney said the “American people deserve to hear from Mr. Cipollone personally.”
- As White House counsel, Pat Cipollone pushed against schemes to undo the 2020 election, she said.
- The House panel is “certain that Donald Trump does not want Mr. Cipollone to testify,” Cheney said.
Rep. Liz Cheney publicly called Tuesday for the former White House counsel Pat Cipollone to testify before the House select committee investigating the January 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol, saying the panel had evidence that he “tried to do what was right” as President Donald Trump tried to overturn the 2020 election.
“Our committee is certain that Donald Trump does not want Mr. Cipollone to testify here,” Cheney, a Wyoming Republican who serves as the vice chair of the House select committee, said. “Indeed, our evidence shows that Mr. Cipollone and his office tried to do what was right. They tried to stop a number of President Trump’s plans for January 6.”
Previewing upcoming hearings, Cheney said the public would hear testimony from other Trump White House officials who would explain steps Cipollone took to push back against the president.
She added: “We think the American people deserve to hear from Mr. Cipollone personally.”
Cheney’s remarks came as the House select committee concluded its latest hearing, which highlighted Trump’s efforts to pressure legislators and other elected officials in key battleground states to defy their oaths and go along with his scheme to overturn the 2020 election results.
The hearing also featured emotional testimony from Shaye Moss, a former election official in Georgia who said Trump’s false claims of election fraud dramatically disrupted her life by exposing her and her mother to death threats and other forms of harassment.
In her closing remarks Tuesday, Cheney said it had been an “honor to spend time” with Moss and other witnesses who appeared, including Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger. But from the dais of the hearing room, Cheney called out the more than 30 witnesses who “have not done what you’ve done” and instead invoked their Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination.
Cheney listed the Trump allies Roger Stone, Michael Flynn, and the conservative lawyer John Eastman as among the witnesses who invoked the Fifth Amendment in response to subpoenas from the House select committee.
In the course of the committee’s public hearings so far, Cheney said the American people had heard recorded testimony of former Attorney General William Barr and other onetime top Justice Department officials “who stood up and did what is right” in the face of Trump.
Cipollone’s status as the former top White House lawyer complicates negotiations for him to testify about several key meetings in which he told Trump and his allies that their various schemes to undo the election results were unlawful.
But Cheney’s remarks nonetheless raised the implicit choice: Would Cipollone join the ranks of Trump allies who have declined to speak with the committee or recount his experience as Barr and other administration officials have?
“He should appear before this committee, and we are working to secure this testimony,” she said.
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