Who is Matthew Pottinger, the Trump National Security official testifying to Jan. 6 panel?

Matthew Pottinger, who was a deputy national security adviser to former President Trump, is reportedly set to testify Thursday before the House select committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol attack.

Pottinger, who resigned from the Trump administration immediately after the Capitol attack, is expected to testify along with former White House aide Sarah Matthews.

The panel’s eighth hearing will focus on former President Trump’s actions on the day of the Capitol attack.

CNN was the first to report Pottinger as an expected witness. The Jan. 6 committee did not respond to The Hill’s request for comment.

Here’s what we know about Pottinger.

Who is Pottinger?

Prior to joining the Trump administration, Pottinger worked as a correspondent at The Wall Street Journal in China for nearly five years before enlisting in the Marine Corps in 2005.

He joined the Marine Corps at the age of 32 and served in Iraq and Afghanistan. He later joined the Trump administration in 2017 and served as a top adviser on Asia.

Pottinger was a key figure in coordinating the meetings between the president and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, who met face-to-face three times during Trump’s presidency.

He was later appointed as the deputy national security adviser in 2019.

Pottinger is fluent in Chinese. He previously said that living under an authoritarian government while working in China made him value freedom more. 

His father, John Stanley Pottinger, served as assistant attorney general under former presidents Richard Nixon and Gerald Ford. 

He resigned on Jan. 6

Pottinger was part of the group of Trump’s national security aides and administration officials who stepped down from their positions after pro-Trump protesters rioted on the Capitol.

It was previously reported that Pottinger resigned over the former president’s response to the events of that day.

At a previous hearing in June, the Jan. 6 committee played snippets of a video testimony from Pottinger in which he said he chose to resign after Trump tweeted that former Vice President Mike Pence should have had more courage and not certified the 2020 Presidential election results.

“I read that tweet. And made a decision at that moment to resign,” Pottinger said in recorded testimony, according to CBS News.

Pottinger has previously testified before the panel

The former national security adviser previously gave video testimony to the House committee, describing what he saw that day.

The New York Times reported that a person familiar with his interview said that Pottinger discussed his visit to the Oval Office as the insurrection was underway.

While he didn’t speak to the former president, Pottinger reportedly spoke to ex-White House chief of staff Mark Meadows to notify him that the National Guard had still not arrived at the Capitol, the Times added.