Donald Trump tried to grab the steering wheel of his presidential vehicle on January 6 and in the process rushed at an agent of the Secret Service, said Cassidy Hutchinson, the former assistant to Mark Meadows.
The White House chief of staff’s former top assistant, just 25 years old, testified on Tuesday that Donald Trump’s White House chief of staff told her that ‘things could get really, really bad on January 6’ just four days before the Capitol riot .
Among the more explosive points of the former staff member’s testimony include Trump’s alleged insistence on joining his supporters at the Capitol – who were told in advance that they were armed.
“I’m the slight president, take me to the Capitol now,” she said he ordered.
When the secret service refused, Hutchinson said agents told her he had rushed to the steering wheel of his car – known as The Beast.
‘Sir, you have to take your hand off the steering wheel. We’re going back to the West Wing, we’re not going to the Capitol, ‘Secret Service agent Richard Engel told Hutchinson.
‘Mr. “Trump then used his free hand to fall in the direction of Bobby Engel,” Hutchinson recalled.
Former deputy chief of staff Tony Ornato “pointed in the direction of his collarbone”, she added, as a sign that the president had gone to the throat of his security detail.
Hutchinson also told the January 6 committee that Trump was “furious” that some of his supporters, who were armed, could not get to the official site of his Stop the Steal rally near the White House that immediately preceded the riot.
He was apparently angry that the size of the crowd that came to hear him speak did not seem as large as he wanted it to – due to his armed supporters not getting past the security magnetometers.
“Take away the slight mags,” she said Trump ordered, referring to the metal detectors that attendees had to go through.
“Who cares if they have weapons, they are not here to hurt me.”
The committee then played a snippet of Trump’s remarks at the rally, urging his supporters to march to the Capitol – words that appeared sharp in the context of evidence claiming he knew it posed a security risk.
Former Mark Meadows assistant Cassidy Hutchinson has been revealed as the committee’s surprise witness on January 6.
The 25-year-old has first-hand information about the former president and his top assistants’ movements on the day of and in the wake of the Capitol riot
Hutchinson admitted that he was the White House staff member behind a note written on January 6 on executive stationery stating: “Anyone who has entered the Capitol illegally without proper authority must leave immediately.”
“Illegal” has been scrapped. “
The note, she said, was a draft statement dictated by Meadows and former White House attorney Eric Herschmann.
Hutchinson said the statement was never issued.
Towards the end of the first half of the trial, Trump went to his app Truth Social to say he barely knows Hutchinson.
‘I hardly know who this person, Cassidy Hutchinson, is, except that I heard a lot of negative things about her (a total fake and a “nice” one), and when she asked to join some others on the team after “Going to Florida after serving a full term, I’re personally turning to her request now, ” he said.
Hutchinson’s exit before a 10-minute recess was greeted with applause by the progressive Arizona Rep. Ruben Gallego, who attended the trial as a spectator.
The second half began with a brief excerpt from the committee’s interview with the disgraced former general and Trump adviser Michael Flynn.
Flynn advocated the fifth amendment when Cheney asked him if he believed in a peaceful transfer of power.
Hutchinson also confirmed reports from the time of the riot that Trump’s cabinet was considering calling for the 25th amendment to remove the then president from office – and that it was former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo who did it. brought to her boss’ attention.
‘Mr. Pompeo issued to conduct the conversation with Mr Meadows in case he did not hear the discussions between the cabinet secretaries. And from what I understand, it was more of this that I heard, I want you to be aware of it, ‘she testified.
The former White House staff member was released late Monday night as the committee’s surprise witness for the hastily announced trial.
She said in her first public testimony of the investigation to lawmakers that Trump’s former attorney Rudy Giuliani told her January 6 would be a ‘big day’ as she accompanied him out of a White House meeting earlier that month.
“He looked at me and said something with the effect of, ‘Cass are you excited? The 6th is going to be a great day, “Hutchinson recalled.
When she asked Giuliani what he meant, Hutchinson said he replied: ‘We are going to the Capitol. This is going to be great. The president will be there, he will look powerful. ‘
Referring to her boss, I encouraged her to ‘talk to the principal about it’ because ‘he knows about it’.
Hutchinson testified that she went straight to Meadows and told him about her ‘interesting’ conversation with the fired lawyer.
“There’s a lot going on, Cass. I do not know, things can get really, really bad on January 6,” she recalled Meadows saying.
She shared her own perspective, adding: “That night was the first moment I remembered being scared and wondering what could happen on January 6.”
Her testimony also paints a picture of Trump having to be restrained from marching to the Capitol with his supporters that day – despite Meadows’ claim in his book that the former president was not serious when he told his supporters he would not do it.
“I was aware of a desire by the president to possibly march or accompany the rallyers to the Capitol,” former Trump aide Nick Luna testified in a video clip shown Tuesday.
Chairman Bennie Thompson opened the trial and showed how close Hutchinson’s office was to Trump
Hutchinson testified that Trump was so angry that his secret service agents refused to take him to the Capitol on January 6 that he jumped to one of their throats.
A conversation log from the National Security Council shown by the committee indicates that he was determined to go along with supporters and staff members ‘begged him to reconsider’.
During her live testimony, Hutchinson recalled a conversation with House GOP leader Kevin McCarthy during which he allegedly begged her to stop Trump from going to the Capitol.
She said McCarthy was ‘frustrated and angry’. Hutchinson told him she was not aware of Trump’s plan to go to the Capitol at the time.
“He just said it on stage. Cassidy, find out,” McCarthy apparently told her.
Former White House lawyer Pat Cipollone told her “we are going to be charged with every conceivable crime” if Trump is allowed to march to the Capitol.
The 25-year-old has first-hand knowledge of talks between Trump and his allies in the run-up to and after the 2020 election.
Vice President Liz Cheney said at the start of the trial that the panel would ‘deviate’ from its normal format to accommodate the ‘important and cross-cutting issues’ in Hutchinson’s wide-ranging evidence.
Thompson opened his questionnaire and asked Hutchinson about her relatively short resume compared to other senior White House staff members, before showing diagrams reflecting the physical proximity her office had to Trump in the Oval Office.
Tuesday’s trial was revealed in an announcement about 24 hours before it was due to take place. The surprise opportunity came after Thompson told reporters last week that his committee’s last two offers would be postponed until July.
In an unusual move, the panel did not give any further details in its announcement, but said it would ‘present recently obtained evidence and receive witness testimony’.
Hutchinson was ousted behind closed doors at least three times by the committee for a combined nearly 20 hours.
She had previously told lawmakers that Trump had shown support for rioters in the U.S. Capitol who sang “Hang Mike Pence” and that she had seen the president’s former chief of staff burn pages in his office after a meeting with the GOP Rep . Scott Perry.
Hutchinson told lawmakers on Tuesday that he was “disgusted” by tweeting Trump that Pence had a “lack of courage” after the former vice president rejected his boss’ plot to overthrow President Joe Biden’s election victory.
“It was unpatriotic, un-American, and we watched the Capitol get disfigured because of a lie,” Hutchinson testified.
The January 6 committee is also looking at phone calls allegedly made among Trump’s adult children and his top aides who are discussing election strategy in September 2020, the Guardian reported Tuesday.
The calls were made at a private event and were captured on video by British documentary filmmaker Alex Holder. Holder’s first-hand footage and interviews of Trump, his family and Vice President Mike Pence in the weeks leading up to the presidential race in November became a focal point for the committee as it worked on Trump’s plan to undermine American democracy.
Lawmakers are focusing on whether the former president and his children were involved in a conspiracy to send in false voters to improve Joe Biden’s victory at Electoral College. The Department of Justice has sued at least nine people separately linked to the scheme.