Jan. 6 committee in last-minute talks with key Trump administration witnesses

Buried deep in a report about the upcoming televised hearings on the Jan. 6 insurrection being held by a House select committee, the New York Times' Annie Karni and Luke Broadwater report that the witness list is not yet complete and negotiations could result in appearances of members of Donald Trump's administration that could deal a blow to his supporters' claims he had nothing to with the riot.

What is known, so far, is that key aides to former Vice President Mike Pence will be testifying on the first night during prime time and that the bi-partisan committee hired a highly-regarded former TV executive to assist them in creating a multi-media presentation that will reportedly be "raw enough so that skeptical journalists will find the material fresh, and chew over the disclosures in future coverage," according to Axios.

As the Times is now reporting, the committee has not yet "nailed down the full slate of witnesses" including the former acting attorney general who was serving the former president after ex-Attorney General Bill Barr stepped down.

Back in August of last year, the Times reported that former AG Jeffrey Rosen "emerged as a key witness in multiple investigations that focus on Mr. Trump's efforts to undermine the results of the election. He has publicly stated that the Justice Department did not find enough fraud to impact the outcome of the election."

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Rosen, the report states, is currently being wooed by lawyers working for the House select committee.

"The panel is waiting for Jeffrey A. Rosen, the former acting attorney general, and Richard P. Donoghue, the former acting deputy attorney general, to respond to formal requests to testify, according to two people briefed on the matter," Karni and Broadwater wrote. "Both Mr. Rosen and Mr. Donoghue have already told multiple congressional committees that Mr. Trump and his allies pressured the department to say falsely that it had found voter fraud and to use its power to undo the results."

Former White House counsel Pat A. Cipollone, who argued with Trump administration officials about "sending out letters to multiple state legislatures claiming the election had been stolen and asking them to reconsider certified election results," is also being asked to speak.

"The committee is still in informal talks with Pat A. Cipollone, the former White House counsel, as well as Byung J. Pak, the former U.S. attorney in Atlanta who abruptly resigned on Jan. 4, 2021, after learning that Mr. Trump planned to fire him for not finding voter fraud, according to those people familiar with the discussions," the Times report adds.

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