A federal grand jury investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection and former President Donald Trump’s efforts to steal the 2020 presidential election will hear from former White House lawyer Pat Cipollone and his then-deputy Patrick Philbin on Friday, according to news reports.
Both Cipollone and Philbin were subpoenaed for their testimony last month. Cipollone was the most senior member of the Trump administration inside the White House on Jan. 6, and attended meetings where the then-president and his allies strategized about overturning the 2020 election result.
The news of their scheduled appearance was first reported by ABC News.
Cipollone and Philbin had threatened to resign if Trump went ahead with his plan to install a loyalist as attorney general to look into his allegations of widespread election fraud in the 2020 presidential election.
Marc Short, who served as Vice President Mike Pence’s chief of staff for two years, and Pence’s counsel Greg Jacob have also provided testimony to the grand jury, according to The New York Times.
Cipollone and his deputy have already appeared before the House select committee investigating the attacks on the U.S. Capitol for closed-door interviews.
In excerpts from his interview aired during the committee’s last public hearings, Cipollone can be heard admiting there was not sufficient election fraud to affect the outcome of the 2020 election. Cipollone also told the panel Trump should have conceded the election.
Cassidy Hutchinson, a former aide to Trump’s former chief of staff Mark Meadows, publicly testified that Cipollone did not want Trump to join his supporters at the Capitol on Jan. 6.
“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,” Hutchinson recounted Cipollone telling her.
Cipollone and Philbin have also been interviewed by the FBI with regard to sensitive documents Trump stored in his Mar-a-Lago estate, according to the Times.