The House Select Committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021 insurrection on Capitol Hill on Wednesday subpoenaed former Trump White House counsel Pat Cipollone, saying recent testimony underscored he “repeatedly raised legal and other concerns about President Trump’s activities” leading up to and on the day of the riot. 

What You Need To Know

  • The House Select Committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021 insurrection on Capitol Hill on Wednesday subpoenaed former Trump White House counsel Pat Cipollone

  • Committee chairman Rep. Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., and vice chair Liz Cheney, R-Wyo., said they required Cipollone's testimony after obtaining other evidence about which he was “uniquely positioned to testify”

  • Cipollone, who was Trump’s top White House lawyer, is said to have raised concerns about the former president’s efforts to overturn his 2020 election defeat and at one point threatened to resign

  • The request comes the day after the committee heard explosive testimony from former White House aide Cassidy Hutchinson, who provided new details about Trump’s behavior on Jan. 6

In a statement, chairman Rep. Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., and vice chair Liz Cheney, R-Wyo., said they required Cipollone's testimony after obtaining other evidence about which he was “uniquely positioned to testify.”

“While the Select Committee appreciates Mr. Cipollone’s earlier informal engagement with our investigation, the committee needs to hear from him on the record, as other former White House counsels have done in other congressional investigations,” the statement read. “Any concerns Mr. Cipollone has about the institutional prerogatives of the office he previously held are clearly outweighed by the need for his testimony.”

Cipollone, who was Trump’s top White House lawyer, is said to have raised concerns about the former president’s efforts to overturn his 2020 election defeat and at one point threatened to resign.

The committee said he could have information about several of efforts by Trump allies to subvert the Electoral College, from organizing so-called “alternate electors” in states Biden won to trying to appoint a loyalist who pushed false theories of voter fraud as attorney general.

The request comes the day after the committee heard explosive testimony from former White House aide Cassidy Hutchinson, who provided new details about Trump’s behavior on Jan. 6, 2021, when thousands of his supporters marched on the U.S. Capitol and broke inside to disrupt the certification of his loss to President Joe Biden.

During Hutchinson’s testimony, she recalled how then-President Donald Trump was determined to join his supporters at the Capitol after his speech on Jan. 6 in which he called for those in attendance to march down the National Mall in protest of the certification of the election. 

But White House counsel Pat Cipollone was adamant Trump should not visit the Capitol, Cassidy Hutchinson testified Tuesday.

According to Hutchinson, Cipollone told her on Jan. 3, 2021: “We need to make sure that this doesn't happen. This would be legally a terrible idea for us. We have serious legal concerns if we go up to the Capitol that day.”

Cipollone urged Hutchinson to relay his concerns to White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows, her boss, she testified.

On the morning of Jan. 6, Cipollone approached Hutchinson again and told her to make sure Trump did not go to the Capitol. 

“Mr. Cipollone said something to the effect of, please, make sure we don't go up to the Capitol, Cassidy,” she said Tuesday. “Keep in touch with me. We're going to get charged with every crime imaginable if we make that movement happen.”

Hutchinson said Cipollone was concerned that it would look like Trump was inciting a riot and obstructing Congress as it met to vote on certifying the election. 

The Associated Press contributed to this report.