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| credit: L. Alcaraz BC Idonwanna sez: He big back-seat driver! |
After months of stonewalling the J6 Committee, former White House Counsel Pat Cipollone reached an agreement to testify under oath in private. His deposition concluded today after 8 hours with investigators. As revealed by Cassidy Hutchinson, Cipollone was a pivotal figure in White House conversations about the coup attempt. He was characterized as being one senior staff member who warned against Trump's plot, saying at one point that participants would be 'charged with every crime in the book' if it went forward. Cipollone was with the former guy when he watched the riot on television in the White House dinning room and did nothing to stop it for 187 minutes. According to other witnesses Cipollone also opposed the installation of Jeffery Clark as acting Attorney General because Clark was willing to send an official DOJ letter to swing-state election officials informing them the election was tainted by fraud. He called the letter "a murder-suicide pack" and wanted nothing to do with it. A source told media Cipollone was cooperative in his interview within the parameters of his agreement, and did not contradict previous witnesses. Cipollone met with J6 investigators in April, but resisted his subpoena to testify under oath. He defended Trumpillini in his impeachment trial. Definitely one of the last loyalists to leave the sinking Trump ship.
Concerns over attorney-client privilege and executive privilege were waived off by Committee member Rep. Zoe Lofgren of California. She reminded interviewers that Cipollone represented the Office of the President and not the Maximum Liar personally, and that executive privilege belongs to the current President, who has made it clear that he will not invoke it when it comes to the Insurrection plotted by Trump and his minions. Speculation is that portions of his videotaped deposition will be exhibited at the next public hearing on Tuesday. His eyewitness testimony could be the "smoking John Dean", irrefutably linking the chief plotter to the deadly riot he incited on January 6th in an attempt to stop the Electoral College vote count.
In a closely related investigation, the special grand jury impaneled in Fulton County, Georgia to investigate attempts by Trump and his supporters to illegally alter the election vote count in Fulton County (Atlanta) served subpoenas on Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani, gonzo legal strategist John Eastman, and gadfly US Senator Lindsay Graham of South Carolina.
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| So bad for the USA! |