A former Trump White House aide, Cassidy Hutchinson, showed the bomb in front of a House of Representatives committee investigating last year’s Capitol riots that was widely rejected on Wednesday – but she says she maintains her stunning allegations.
Hutchinson, who worked for Donald Trump’s last chief of staff, Mark Meadows, told a delighted audience on Tuesday that Trump had tried to outdo his secret service detail and conquer the presidential SUV in an attempt to join the crowd of his supporters. who seek to undo the election results, among other shocking and never-ending anecdotes.
However, some of the scariest stories have been denied by those involved – after Trump’s allies initially denied the stories as mostly “rumors” that relied on what Hutchinson said she was told, not what she personally observed.
“Miss. Hutchinson is defending all the testimony he gave yesterday, under oath, to the elected committee to investigate the January 6 attack on the United States Capitol,” Hutchinson’s attorneys Jody Hunt and William Jordan told CNN.
However, key areas of contention have emerged that can ultimately be clarified by witnesses with first-hand information at future hearings.
Cassidy Hutchinson, a former aide to Trump’s White House chief of staff Mark Meadows, defended his allegations of Trump’s alleged savage behavior on January 6, 2021. Andrew Harnick-Poole / Getty Images
Statement: Trump grabbed the wheel of the jeep and threw himself at an agent
The first allegation that he was facing significant repulsion also attracted the most immediate attention: that an “angry” Trump grabbed the steering wheel of the jeep he was driving and then threw himself at Secret Service agent Robert “Bobby” Engel when Engel told him he couldn’t join his thousands of fans marching to the Capitol.
“I’m the damn president!” Take me to the Capitol now! Trump is said to be screaming.
Hutchinson said he told her about the incident to Anthony Ornato, who was deputy chief of staff to the White House operations operations that day. She said Engel was in the room when Ornato told her about the confrontation moments later, and that the agent did not contradict the story.
A video released by the House Committee on Elections shows former President Donald Trump talking to his chief of staff Mark Meadows before a rally on January 6, 2021. House Select Committee via AP
But shortly after her testimony, background intelligence sources informed most major news outlets that both Engel and the SUV driver were disputing the bill and would like to testify under oath. An unnamed official told CNN that Ornato, who still works for the Secret Service, refused to even hand over the account to Hutchinson.
In response to Hutchinson’s testimony, Secret Service Communications Chief Anthony Guglielmi said in a statement: to the commission on new allegations that appeared in yesterday’s testimony. “
Trump claims that “Hutchinson’s fake story that I tried to get behind the wheel of a White House limousine to direct her to the Capitol building” is “sick” and deceptive, much like the Cancellation Committee itself – it wouldn’t even be it is possible to do such a ridiculous thing. “
Former President Donald Trump has categorically denied Cassidy Hutchinson’s allegations. AP Photo / Jacquelyn Martin, File
Statement: Trump smashed his lunch against the wall
Hutchinson told live how he helped clean ketchup from a West Wing dining room wall after Trump claimed he hit his lunch plate in a fit of rage over Attorney General Bill Bar’s December 1, 2020, interview with the Associated Press. challenges the president’s election allegations of fraud.
“There was ketchup dripping on the wall and a broken porcelain plate on the floor,” she testified. “So I grabbed a towel and started wiping the ketchup off the wall to help the valet come out.”
Hutchinson said Trump’s valet, a military official, told her that the 45th president had smashed his food because of his frustration with Bar, and that he had previously made a mess of tearing tablecloths to make food fall to the ground. .
Cassidy Hutchinson cites White House Deputy Chief of Staff Anthony Ornato as his source of Donald Trump’s alleged altercation with a secret service agent.REUTERS / Tom Brenner
It is unclear whether the valet will be available to the commission, but Trump denied the bill.
“Her story about me throwing food is also false… and why SHE has to clean it, I hardly knew who she was?” Trump said.
Statement: Hutchinson made a potential statement to Trump during the uprising
Hutchinson testified that while Trump-backing rebels looted the Capitol and sent staff to flee to safety, she recorded possible remarks during which Trump would call on the rebels to return home.
She said “this is my handwriting” because the note was presented as evidence.
“Anyone who enters the Capitol illegally without proper permission must leave immediately,” the note said. The word “illegal” was later crossed out.
Cassidy Hutchinson said she wrote remarks about former President Donald Trump on January 6, 2021. AP Photo / Jose Luis Magana, File
Hutchinson testified that Meadows dictated the statement to her, but then-White House attorney Eric Hershman told her to change it “illegally” to “without proper authority.”
Hershman claimed on Tuesday night that he had actually written the note.
“The handwritten note that Cassidy Hutchinson testified was written by her, it was actually written by Eric Hershman on January 6, 2021,” a Hershman spokesman told ABC News.
Statement: Trump wanted supporters with guns to be allowed to rally
Trump is said to have been outraged when metal detectors reduced the size of his crowd at the Ellipse Stop The Steal rally shortly before the riot, prompting him to demand that the metal detectors be removed as protesters noticed wearing AR-style semi-automatic rifles. -15. I will not hurt him.
“I was next to a conversation where I heard the president say something like, ‘I don’t care if they have a weapon. They are not here to hurt me. Get the hell out of here, ”Hutchinson said.
Trump denied this, and the allegation has not yet been confirmed by additional witnesses.
“I never complained about the crowd, it was huge. I didn’t want or wanted to make room for people with guns to watch my speech. Who would ever want that? It’s not me! “Trump wrote in a line posted on his social network Truth Social.
“Besides, no weapons were found or brought into the Capitol building.” So where were all those weapons? But unfortunately, a gun was used against Ashley Babbitt, at no cost to the man who used it!
Ashley Babbitt was shot and killed in the Capitol. MVA in Maryland / Courtesy of the Calvert County Sheriff’s Office through AP
Statement: Meadows will not “break away” during a riot
Hutchinson’s testimony portrays Meadows as strangely detached from the events of Jan. 6, often engulfed by his phone as chaos swirls around him.
As Trump-backed rebels approached the Capitol, Hutchinson recalled asking Meadows, “Did you talk to the president?” To which Meadows said he replied, “No, he wants to be alone right now,” while, as Hutchinson told the commission, “still looking at his phone.”
“I remember thinking at that point, ‘Mark has to get out of this, and I don’t know how to get him out of it, but he has to care,'” Hutchinson said.
Ben Williamson, a former Meadows chief executive, responded angrily in a statement to NBC News: “I’ve worked for Mark Meadows for seven years – any proposal that doesn’t interest him is ridiculous. And if the committee really wanted answers to that question, they could release my interview, where I outlined to them what Meadows did right away when I told him about the initial violence in the Capitol the other day. They seem more interested in rumors, speculation and speculation as a means of greasing people, and it’s obvious why. “
Meadows refused to respond to a summons from the commission, citing the privilege of the executive. However, the former North Carolina MP handed over nearly 9,000 pages of emails and text messages to the committee before abruptly cutting off contact in early December.
Earlier this month, the Justice Department told the committee it would not accuse Meadows or another Trump aide, Dan Scavino, of disrespecting Congress for disobeying subpoenas.
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