Trump's former top lawyer Pat Cipollone is in talks to testify publicly at a January 6 House Committee primetime hearing: report

• Trump's former White House counsel is in talks to testify publicly, ABC News reported.
• The January 6 Committee wants to put him on a panel with top Justice Department officials, per ABC.

Pat Cipollone, who served as one of former President Donald Trump's top lawyers in the White House, is in talks with the January 6 House Committee to publicly testify about last year's Capitol riot, ABC News reported.

The former White House counsel has indicated that his testimony will be about Jeffrey Clark, a former top Justice Department official who reportedly used his powers to try and aid Trump in overturning the 2020 election, the outlet reported, citing sources close to the matter.

Cipollone had previously spoken with the January 6 committee during an informal interview in April.

ABC News reported that the committee now wants to put Cipollone on a panel with former acting US Attorney General Jeffrey Rosen, former Deputy Attorney General Richard Donoghue, and former DOJ attorney Steve Engel.

Rosen and Donoghue have been formally invited to testify for at least one of the six primetime hearings, the first of which is scheduled to start on Thursday.

The New York Times previously reported that Trump had wanted to fire Rosen as the US attorney general and replace him with Clark, who had planned ways to challenge the 2020 election results in Trump's favor.

However, Trump was ultimately dissuaded when top Justice Department officials threatened to resign if the replacement went through, The Times reported.

Cipollone and Pat Philbin, a former deputy White House counsel, said they would resign should Clark be installed as attorney general, ABC reported, citing testimony from Donoghue.

Several issues may need to be addressed before Cipollone can testify, such as who questions him and for how long, if there are any ongoing issues of privilege, and whether Trump would approve of him appearing during the hearing, the outlet reported, citing sources familiar with the matter.

Cipollone did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Insider.

The January 6 committee's six upcoming hearings, all scheduled for primetime airing, are expected to unveil key findings of the year-long investigation into the Capitol attack.

Republican lawmakers who refused to participate in the investigation are now preparing to defend Trump, though it's not yet clear what their effort will entail. Some of them have claimed that the decision to host the primetime hearings belies a greater public interest in rising gas prices, a baby formula shortage, and the state of the economy.