WASHINGTON — Pat Cipollone, who served as former President Donald Trump’s White House counsel, has been subpoenaed by a federal grand jury in its investigation into the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection, a source familiar with the matter told NBC News Wednesday.
The Justice Department is investigating then-President Donald Trump’s actions leading up to the Jan. 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol as part of its criminal probe of efforts to overturn the 2020 election results, an administration official familiar with the investigation said last week, confirming a Washington Post report.
The probe, related to the department’s wider investigation into efforts to overturn the election results, is not a criminal investigation of Trump himself, the official added.
The Department of Justice declined to comment on Cipollone’s subpoena.
Cipollone, who was a top official in the Trump White House, cooperated with the House select committee’s separate investigation into Jan. 6 last month. Cipollone, whom panel vice chair Rep. Liz Cheney, R-Wyo., has described as a critical witness, testified behind closed doors for more than seven hours.
The panel subpoenaed Cipollone after hearing bombshell testimony from Cassidy Hutchinson, a former top aide to then-President Donald Trump’s chief of staff Mark Meadows, who detailed the lawyer’s efforts to rein in Trump on Jan. 6 and the days preceding it.
A top Jan. 6 committee member told NBC New that Cipollone had corroborated virtually all of the revelations from previous witnesses, including Hutchinson. It is, however, unclear if Cipollone was directly asked by investigators about the specifics of some of the more explosive aspects of Hutchinson’s testimony
Numerous video clips from the interview were played during the committee’s public hearings last month.
During the panel’s eighth public hearing, Cipollone said in his recorded testimony that White House staff wanted rioters to go home that day and he suggested Trump did not.
Attorney General Merrick Garland told NBC News’ Lester Holt that the DOJ’s probe is the “most wide-ranging investigation in its history” and plans to prosecute anyone who was “criminally responsible for interfering with the peaceful transfer of power from one administration to another.”
ABC News was first to report on Cipollone’s DOJ subpoena.
Peter Nicholas and Ken Dilanian contributed.
Source: | This article originally belongs to Nbcnews.com
