Pat Cipollone, former White House counsel, testified in front the House Select Committee investigating the Jan. 6 riot at the US Capitol. Vice chair Liz Cheney said that his testimony “met our expectations.”

Donald Trump had once called Pat Cipollone “the strong, silent type” for rebuffing congressional subpoenas, asking other White House aides not to cooperate, and overall orchestrating the White House defence against the then-president’s impeachment trial, all without grabbing the spotlight. 

The Jan 6 hearing committee called Cassidy Hutchinson, who was once an aide to former White House Chief of Staff, Mark Meadows, as a surprise witness in the hearing. Hutchinson testified a conversation between Cipollone and Meadows with the former saying “I remember Pat saying something to the effect of, ‘Mark, we need to do something more, they’re literally calling for the vice president to be f**king hung.’ And Mark had responded something to the effect of, ‘You heard it, Pat, he thinks Mike deserves it, he doesn’t think they’re doing anything wrong.'” 

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Cipollone is a named partner in a 35-year-old law firm Ellis George Cipollone O’Brien Annaguey LLP. He is based in the Washington office and has had a distinguished legal career, and was at one time a senior partner at the Washington office of Kirkland & Ellis LLP. After Kirkland & Ellis. 

Born on May 6, 1966, Cipollone’s father was an Italian immigrant factory worker, and his mother a homemaker. He spent most of his childhood in the Bronx, before the family moved to Northern Kentucky. There, Cippolone graduated from the Covington Catholic High School in 1984. 

He then got a Bachelor of Arts in economics and political philosophy from Fordham University and was the class valedictorian. Cipollone has a Juris Doctor from the University of Chicago Law School, where he managed the flagship Law Review journal. 

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Cipollone clerked with the Honorable Danny Boggs, U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit. 

The 56-year-old has 10 children and is a Roman Catholic. He’s a founding member of the National Catholic Prayer Breakfast, as well as a board member of the Catholic Information Center.

The veteran lawyer, along with Attorney General William Barr and Leonard Leo of the Federalist Society, served on the board of directors of the Catholic Information Center, an organization meant for powerful Washington Catholics. It is affiliated with the conservative Opus Dei movement. 

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Bill Nettles, a former US attorney for South Carolina during the Obama administration and a colleague of Cipollone’s, noted that the Catholic faith played a large part in the lawyer’s life and career. 

“One of the many things I like about Pat is this: Faith is a big deal to him”, Nettles told NPR, adding, “But I live in a part of the world where people routinely wear it on their sleeve. And Pat is not like that. … He doesn’t use it as a vehicle to judge other people”.