On Friday, the White House counsel under then-President Donald Trump and his top deputy appeared at a federal courthouse to testify before a federal grand jury investigating efforts to disrupt the 2020 presidential election.
Pat Cipollone was the chief White House lawyer during the conclusion of Trump's presidency, when Trump and outside allies sought ways to reverse the Republican's loss to Democrat Joe Biden, culminating in the Jan. 6, 2021, insurgency at the United States Capitol.
Cipollone resisted efforts to annul the election and stated that he did not believe there was enough fraud to affect the outcome of the race.
Cipollone and Patrick Philbin, a deputy White House attorney, have also assisted with a separate House committee investigation into the fatal Jan. 6 incident and attempted electoral tampering.
Federal investigators have been particularly interested in a conspiracy by Trump supporters to elevate false electors in critical battleground states won by Biden in order to skew the vote.
Cipollone's private interview with a House committee on January 6 was heavily used in hearings during the summer.
Lawmakers played video images of him outlining a heated meeting at the White House in December 2020, during which outside aides and advisers to Trump discussed a draught executive order calling for the seizure of voting equipment.