House Republicans on Monday shredded the reliability of the main witness used by Democrats in their investigation of the Jan. 6, 2021, riots on Capitol Hill and then-President Donald Trump's alleged role in them.
The House Administration Subcommittee on Oversight released an 81-page report that, in part, points out inconsistencies in, and the lack of corroboration given to, the testimony of former White House aide Cassidy Hutchinson.
The panel, chaired by Rep. Barry Loudermilk, R-Ga., said Hutchinson's testimony "changed substantially over time to be more dramatic." Further, the panel cast doubt on a key part of Hutchinson's "sensational story" that Trump lunged for the steering wheel of his presidential SUV and physically engaged his lead Secret Service agent after being told he could not go to the Capitol alongside protesters.
"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," the report said. "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 then-White House chief of staff Mark Meadows at the end of Trump's term as president.
An attorney for Hutchinson told NBC News that her testimony varied over time because she was first represented by Trump-funded counsel, whom he said pressured her to be "loyal" to the "boss."
"Let me be clear: since Ms. Hutchinson changed counsel, she has and will continue to tell the truth," Hutchinson attorney William Jordan 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,'" Jordan wrote.
Loudermilk and House Republicans have been investigating the failures of Jan. 6 since early 2023, something Democrats only feigned to do with their Select Committee while in the majority 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," Loudermilk and the panel 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."
Mark Swanson ✉
Mark Swanson, a Newsmax writer and editor, has nearly three decades of experience covering news, culture and politics.
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