It is the first public step the commission has taken since receiving a public testimony from Cassidy Hutchinson, a one-time junior aide who accused Trump of knowing his supporters were armed on January 6 and asked to be taken to the US Capitol that day. . Cipollone, who was Trump’s top lawyer in the White House, is said to have expressed concern about the former president’s efforts to reverse his 2020 election defeat and at some point threatened to resign. The commission said it could have information on many of Trump’s allies’ efforts to overthrow the House of Representatives, including the organization of so-called “alternate voters” in the states won by Joe Biden. Cipollone was placed at a critical juncture after the election by Hutchinson as well as by former Justice Department attorneys who appeared at a hearing last week. Hutchinson said Shipolone had warned before Jan. 6 that there would be “serious legal concerns” if Trump went to the Capitol with protesters expected to gather outside. CLOCKS Trump wanted armed protesters at the rally, says the former aide:
Trump knew participants on Jan. 6 had guns, key aide says
Donald Trump has ruled out the threat of armed protesters heading to the Capitol on January 6, 2021, a key former White House aide told investigators on Tuesday. On the morning of January 6, Cipollone testified, he reiterated his concerns that if Trump went to the Capitol to try to interfere in the certification of the election, “we will be charged with every crime imaginable.” And as the uprising continued, he said he heard Meadows tell Cipollone that Trump liked the rioters who wanted to hang Vice President Mike Pence. “You heard it,” Meadows told Cipollone in her memoir. “‘He [Trump] thinks Mike deserves it. “He does not think they are doing anything wrong.” Representatives Bennie Thompson and Liz Cheney, chair and vice-chairmen of the committee, respectively, stated in their letter to Cipollone that, having previously given an “informal interview” to the committee on 13 April, his refusal to provide on-the-spot testimony made their summons necessary. Republican lawmaker Adam Kinzinger, who also sits on the committee, said last week that Shipolone told the committee he tried to intervene when he heard Trump consulting with Jeffrey Clark, a former Justice Department official who wanted to prosecute voter fraud. . Federal agents recently seized Clark’s cell phone and searched his home in Virginia. Clark had written a letter to key states that was never sent, but would falsely claim that the department had uncovered worrying election irregularities. A witness said Cipollone told Trump the letter was a “murder-suicide pact.”
