The January 6 Committee avoided asking former White House counsel Pat Cipollone questions about what star witness Cassidy Hutchinson said last month that she heard him say during the Capitol riot, the New York Times has reported.
By failing to ask Cipollone to confirm or deny the sensational statements attributed to him — such as that Trump officials could be “charged with every crime imaginable” by going to the Capitol during the riot — they avoided contradicting her.
Hutchinson’s testimony, which was entirely based on hearsay, was treated as a major breakthrough for the committee because she appeared to implicate former President Donald Trump and key aides — until her factual claims began to fall apart.
By failing to ask Cipollone if he actually said what Hutchinson, under oath, told the committee that he said, the committee avoided proving that Hutchinson committed perjury — while using her as leverage to force Cipollone to testify on video.
Hutchinson is J6 committee’s biggest star. Now members can point to her testimony and say: No other witnesses have contradicted her! How dare you question her account! 4/4 End.
— Byron York (@ByronYork) July 10, 2022
The Times also notes — as if it were normal practice — that committee aides are following a script and that they are selectively editing bits of Cipollone’s testimony to air them at future hearings and drive their particular narrative:
The panel recorded Mr. Cipollone on video with potential plans to use clips of his testimony at upcoming hearings. Aides have begun strategizing about whether and where to adjust scripts to include key clips, one person said. The next hearing is scheduled for Tuesday.
Cipollone had already cooperated with the committee before, while declining to testify under oath or to appear on video, citing concerns of executive privilege and attorney-client privilege. The committee then issued a subpoena for him to return.
The motivation for the subpoena was Hutchinson’s testimony, which appeared to invite elaboration from Cippolone. However, the committee reportedly did not ask him about that, adding fuel to criticism that the hearings are a “show trial.”
Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News and the host of Breitbart News Sunday on Sirius XM Patriot on Sunday evenings from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. ET (4 p.m. to 7 p.m. PT). He is the author of the recent e-book, Neither Free nor Fair: The 2020 U.S. Presidential Election. His recent book, RED NOVEMBER, tells the story of the 2020 Democratic presidential primary from a conservative perspective. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.