Pat Cipollone, former counsel for the Trump White House in the waning days of the administration, has been subpoenaed to testify in front of a federal grand jury investigating the Jan. 6 insurrection, according to multiple reports. 

What You Need To Know

  • Pat Cipollone, former counsel for the Trump White House in the waning days of the administration, has been subpoenaed to testify in front of a federal grand jury investigating the Jan. 6 insurrection

  • The subpoena could signify an uptick in the Department’s investigation into who – if anyone – in the government bears responsibility for the violent attack on the Capitol

  • In early July, Cipollone was subpoenaed by the House Select Committee investigating the Jan. 6 riot after former White House aide Cassidy Hutchinson described his repeated efforts to stop Donald Trump from joining the mob at the Capitol

  • Cipollone was also part of a key meeting on the Sunday before the Jan. 6 attack with Justice Department officials at the White House threatening to resign if Trump went ahead with plans to install a new acting attorney general 

ABC News was the first to report on the development in the DOJ probe Tuesday, citing sources directly familiar with the matter. CNN and The New York Times have also confirmed the subpoena.

The subpoena could signify an uptick in the Department’s investigation into who – if anyone – in the government bears responsibility for the violent attack on the Capitol. 

In early July, Cipollone was subpoenaed by the House Select Committee investigating the Jan. 6 riot after former White House aide Cassidy Hutchinson described his repeated efforts to stop former President Donald Trump from joining the mob at the Capitol.

Hutchinson said Cipollone urged her to persuade her boss, chief of staff Mark Meadows, not to let Trump go to the Capitol.

Cipollone was also part of a key meeting on the Sunday before the Jan. 6 attack with Justice Department officials at the White House threatening to resign if Trump went ahead with plans to install a new acting attorney general who would pursue his false claims of voter fraud.

In recorded testimony from Cipollone played at a subsequent hearing, the former White House counsel also detailed a Dec. 18 meeting between a group of allies of former President Donald Trump and several White House staff. 

The meeting was called after numerous Trump advisers, including Cipollone, told the president there was no evidence of voter fraud that would overturn the results of the election – an answer the president refused to accept, and was spurred on by some of his allies outside the White House.  

“I don't think any of these people were providing the president with good advice,” Cipollone said of the Dec. 18 meeting, where the president asked if he could name Sidney Powell special counsel to investigate voter fraud. 

Cipollone also told lawmakers he rejected the theory that former vice president Mike Pence had the authority to overturn the election results as he oversaw their certification at the Capitol on Jan. 6, an unfounded theory proposed by attorney John Eastman, who served as Trump’s election lawyer. 

“President Trump was trying to convince Vice President Pence to do something illegal,” Rep. Stephanie Murphy said in a mid-July hearing. 

Cipollone agreed in a deposition taped with the select committee.

“My view is that the vice president didn't have the legal authority to do anything except what he did,” the former White House lawyer said. 

Responding to others’ testimony that he thought the so-called “Eastman theory” was “nutty,” Cipollone did not deny that was what he said at the time.

“I don’t have any reason to contradict what he said,” Cipollone testified.

Illinois Rep. Adam Kinzinger, one of two Republicans on the Jan. 6 committee, on Wednesday said the subpoena from DOJ is “probably bad for former President Trump,” adding it likely signifies the department has “a very deep interest in what the President did” in his attempts to overturn the election. 

“I hope Pat Cipollone actually just tells the truth. I have no doubt that he hasn't, but there's no reason to protect, particularly criminal behavior or what could potentially be criminal behavior behind executive privilege,” Kinzinger said on CNN's “New Day” on Wednesday. “So we'll see where this goes. But there's no doubt that this investigation has developed further along than where we either knew it was or thought it was a few months ago.”

Unlike the House committee investigating the Jan. 6 insurrection, the Department of Justice has the authority to levy charges against those who it deems may have broken federal laws. There is, however, the issue of executive privilege, a widely-used term used to describe a right that presidents claim keeps them from being forced to divulge information. 

While not specifically spelled out in the Constitution, executive privilege has unleashed important legal disputes about how much authority a president has over divulging White House decision making, and whether or not those the president communicated with are equally responsible for protecting the information.

“Obviously the Justice Department knows better what they can, in essence, get around when it comes to saying executive privilege,” Kinzinger said on CNN, adding: “And so I hope they go at that judiciously.” 

Cipollone is not the first – and will likely not be the last – person subpoenaed by the Justice Department in its investigation into the insurrection. 

Marc Short, Pence’s former chief of staff, confirmed last week that he testified before the grand jury. Greg Jacob, who served as Pence’s counsel, also testified in recent weeks, The New York Times and Wall Street Journal reported. And ABC News reported last Wednesday that Cassidy Hutchinson, a former top aide to Meadows, is cooperating with federal prosecutors.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.