“Why would a future President of the United States want to have frank and meaningful conversations with his White House counsel if he believed that there was even a slight possibility that this person, effectively acting as a ‘lawyer’ for the country, might somehow day before a partisan and openly hostile Committee in Congress, or even a fair and reasonable Committee, to reveal the inner secrets of foreign policy or other important matters,” Trump wrote on the Truth Social social media platform. “So bad for the USA!”
Pat Cipollone reached an agreement Wednesday to offer further testimony to a House committee on Jan. 6, according to multiple reports. It is not yet clear to what extent Cipollone will cooperate with the commission after its decision to subpoena him last week. Cipollone’s attorney did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
According to multiple witnesses, Cipollone played a key role in the White House’s response to the Capitol attack and what happened before it. Former White House aide Cassidy Hutchinson testified that Cipollone told her that Trump could not go to the Capitol on January 6. He said Cipollone was worried that Trump would “be accused of every crime imaginable.”
“She was also concerned that it would look like we were inciting a riot or encouraging a riot to happen on Capitol Hill,” Hutchinson told the panel during one of four videotaped depositions ahead of her June 28 public testimony.
Trump and Cipollone are not close, and the then-president used to mock him both to his face and behind his back as one of the worst lawyers, the Washington Post reported. Jared Kushner, Trump’s son-in-law and former top aide, told the committee he thought Cipollone was “whining” when he threatened to resign after the Capitol attack.
Former White House counsel Pat Cipollone, bottom left in red tie, and Trump’s personal attorney Jay Sekulow listen to President Donald Trump speak at the White House in February 2020. AP Photo/Patrick Semansky
History also shows that Trump’s sweeping claim of a potentially weakened presidency is not as strong as it claims to be. Similar reasoning was tried during Whitewater independent counsel Ken Starr’s investigation of President Bill Clinton, which ultimately resulted in Clinton’s impeachment.
The Clinton White House argued that Bruce Lindsey, a top adviser and deputy White House adviser, could not testify before a grand jury about his conversations with the then-president because those conversations were covered by executive privilege. A federal judge ruled that while the privilege existed, Starr’s need to secure the testimony outweighed it. A federal court later rejected the White House’s argument that the conversations were protected by attorney-client privilege.
“With respect to investigations of federal criminal offenses, and especially offenses committed by those within the government, government lawyers are in a very different position than members of the private bar,” the court’s opinion said. “Their duty is not to defend clients against criminal charges and it is not to protect offenders from public exposure.”
In a further test of executive privilege, then-Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist refused to intervene when the Clinton White House strongly objected to Secret Service agents being forced to testify about what they knew about the president’s affair with Monica Lewinsky .
Trump has also been burned by the words of one of his White House advisers in the past. While Trump may try to blur the line, a White House counsel is not the president’s personal lawyer. Instead, the top White House legal official is supposed to advise on the extent of presidential powers, help with judicial appointments, monitor White House staff compliance with ethics rules and, when necessary, work with the Justice Department .
Don McGahn, Trump’s first White House adviser, was a key witness in special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into ties between Russia and the Trump world. McGahn has told investigators that Trump ordered him to fire Mueller, a claim Trump has previously denied. The Trump White House later became embroiled in a protracted legal battle when House Democrats tried to get McGahn to recount his private testimony at a congressional hearing.
