On Monday, House Republicans shredded the reliability of the main witness used by Democrats in their investigation of the January 6, 2021, Capitol Hill incident and the alleged role of then-President Donald Trump in it.
The House Administration Subcommittee on Oversight released an 81-page report that, in parts, points to a lack of corroboration with former White House aide Cassidy Hutchinson.
The panel, which GOP Representative Barry Loudermilk of Georgia chaired, said Hutchinson’s testimony “changed substantially over time to be more dramatic.”
Furthermore, the panel cast doubt on a crucial part of Hutchinson’s “sensational story” that former President Trump lunged for his presidential SUV’s steering wheel and engaged physically with his lead Secret Service agent after being told he couldn’t go to the Capitol with the protesters.
The report said, “None of the White House employees corroborated Hutchinson’s sensational story about President Trump lunging for the steering wheel of the Beast. However, some witnesses did describe the President’s mood after the speech at the Ellipse.”
“It is highly improbable that the other White House Employees would have heard about the President’s mood in the SUV following his speech at the Ellipse but not heard the sensational story that Hutchinson claims Anthony Ornato, the White House Deputy Chief of Staff for Operations, told her after returning to the White House on January 6.”
Hutchinson was a top aide to Mark Meadows, then top aide to Mark Meadows, and then White House chief of staff toward the end of Trump’s presidential term.
A lawyer for Hutchinson told NBC News that her testimony varied over time as she was first represented by a Trump-funded counsel who, he said, pressured her to remain “loyal” to the “boss.”
“Let me be clear: since Ms. Hutchinson changed counsel, she has and will continue to tell the truth,” William Jordan, Hutchinson’s attorney, said in a January letter to Loudermilk.
“Ms. Hutchinson will not succumb to a pressure campaign from those who seek to silence her and influence her testimony, even when done in the name of ‘oversight,’” wrote Jordan.
Committee has been investigating Jan. 6 failures since 2023
House Republicans and Loudermilk have been investigating the January 6 failures since early 2023, something Democrats only pretended to do with their Select Committee while in most of the 117th Congress, they say.
“Speaker Pelosi and House Democrats spent millions of taxpayer dollars on their politically motivated Select Committee yet failed to thoroughly investigate and review the security failures at the Capitol on and before January 6, 2021,” the panel and Loudermilk wrote in its analysis.
“Instead, the members of the Select Committee were laser-focused on their effort to promote their pre-determined narrative that President Trump was responsible for the breach of the Capitol on January 6 and should, therefore, be held accountable by any means necessary,” they continued.
