(CNN)Former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo met Tuesday with theHouse January 6 Committee, panel said. member said. Rep. Zoe Lofgren. A California Democrat confirmed his earlier CNN report that Pompeo would be fired by the committee, according to a source familiar with the matter.
Part of the 25th Amendment to Presidential Succession requires the vice president and a majority of the cabinet to vote to remove the president on the grounds that he is "unable to discharge the powers and duties of the office." I admit to doing
Pompeo, who served as CIA director during Trump's first year as president and headed the State Department for the last three years, has been a staunch ally and defender of Trump.
Lofgren declined to comment on the details of Pompeo's testimony in an interview on Tuesday, but told CNN's Wolf Blitzer's "Situation Room", "He was willing to come in and answer questions for quite some time.
When asked if the commission had any new information from Pompeo's testimony, Lofgren said: So I just fill in the big picture that the Chief Cabinet Secretary was concerned about the President, especially on that day and the events that followed.
However, Mastriano's virtual appearance on Tuesday lasted only about 15 minutes and "he didn't even answer one of his questions," according to a source familiar with the matter.
Mastriano's lawyers called off the virtual appearance shortly after it began, sources said. His attorney, Tim Perlatore, disputed some procedural issues related to the deposition and questioned the legality of the subpoena Mastriano received from the panel, sources said. He added.
Mastriano, a key figure in Trump's efforts to overturn the 2020 election, held a phony legislative "public hearing" at a Gettysburg hotel just weeks after the 2020 election. and false allegations about election fraud made by Trump and then-lawyer Rudy Giuliani. He also chartered a bus to bring Trump supporters to Washington on Jan. 6 and was briefly in charge of a partisan "audit" of the Pennsylvania Senate for the 2020 election. } Last week, Mastriano threatened to walk out of a scheduled deposition before the House selection committee unless the panel agreed to his terms, potentially setting up a legal battle over his testimony.
In a letter to the Commission, his attorney, Parlatore, said he would withdraw the proposed deposit unless they could agree to certain considerations. Parlatore asked that if the committee release a clip that he believes requires additional context, the deposition can be videotaped, the footage kept in escrow, and part of it can be made public at a later time. I was.
This story has been updated with additional background information.