Donald Trump tries to grab the steering wheel of his presidential limousine on January 6, 2021, when his security details forbid him from escorting him to the US Capitol where his supporters were rioting, a former aide said on Tuesday. Testified.
The then-president dismissed concerns that some supporters had gathered outside the White House that day for his fiery speech, carrying AR-15-style rifles with metal-detecting magnetometers instead of asking for security. To prevent screening attendees so that the crowd looked large, aides testified.
Cassidy Hutchinson, a top aide to Trump’s then White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows, was quoted as saying by Trump that morning, “Take away the if mags, they’re not here to hurt me.”
Hutchinson testified in the deadly January 6 Capitol attack by Trump followers on the sixth day of a House of Representatives hearing that the conversation was relayed by Tony Ornato, a senior Secret Service officer who was the deputy chief of staff for Trump’s operations. . ,
The New York Times and NBC, citing Secret Service sources, said that the head of Trump’s security department, Robert Engel, and the limousine driver were set to testify under oath that Trump never went for the steering wheel. Hutchinson said that Engel was in the room when Ornato relayed the story.
Referring to his conversations with Ornato, Hutchinson testified that Trump clashed with Secret Service agents, who insisted that he return to the White House rather than join the supporters who stormed the Capitol, where Congress President The meeting was held to certify the victory of Democrat Joe Biden in the election.
Trump supporters were excited by his false claims that his 2020 election defeat was the result of fraud
Hutchinson quoted an indignant Trump as saying, “I’m an influential president. Take me to the Capitol now.” She said Trump tried from the back seat to grab the steering wheel of the heavily armored presidential vehicle and got angry at a Secret Service officer.
A Republican, Trump denied his account of his actions.
“Her fake story that I tried to grab the steering wheel of a White House limousine to drive it to the Capitol building is ‘sick’ and a fraud,” Trump wrote on his social media app Truth Social.
In a statement, the Secret Service said it was cooperating with the House committee and “will respond on record to the committee with regard to the new allegations revealed in today’s testimony,” multiple media reported. The Secret Service did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Reuters.
Hutchinson’s attorney, Jody Hunt, wrote on Twitter that she “tested under oath, and recited what she was told. Those with knowledge of the episode must also testify under oath.”
Dozens of courts, election officials and reviews of Trump’s own administration have debunked his fraudulent claims, including strange stories about an Italian security firm and late Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez tampering with US ballots.
Four people died on the day of the attack, one shot by the police and the other by natural causes. More than 100 police officers were injured, and one died the next day. Four officers later died by suicide.
Witness tampering?
At the end of nearly two hours of testimony, Representative Liz Cheney, one of two Republicans on the nine-member House panel, presented potential evidence of witness tampering and obstruction of justice.
Cheney shows the message to unidentified witnesses, advising them that an unidentified person will be watching their testimony closely and hoping for loyalty.
Republican Mick Mulvaney, who was Trump’s chief of staff before Meadows, tweeted: “There’s an old saying: It’s never a crime, it’s always hiding. Things went very badly for the former President today. I guess That it will get worse from here.”
Hutchinson told the committee that Meadows and former Trump attorney Rudy Giuliani had apologized to Trump.
Giuliani told WSYR Radio in Syracuse, New York, on Tuesday that he has not apologized.
Tuesday’s hurriedly convened hearing marked the first time in six hearings this month that a former White House official appeared to testify live.
Speaking in a soft but reassuring tone, Hutchinson, 26, painted a picture of terrified White House officials, raging at the prospect of Trump’s involvement, in what turned out to be a violent mob that marched into the Capitol. making way, hunting down her vice president, Mike Pence, House. Speaker Nancy Pelosi and other lawmakers testified to Biden’s victory over Joe Trump.
‘Every crime imaginable’
White House officials’ concerns have focused on potential criminal charges that could face Trump and others.
“We’re going to be charged for every crime,” Hutchinson said as White House counselor Pat Cipollone told him if Trump had to go to the Capitol on Jan.
“We need to make sure that doesn’t happen, it would be a really terrible idea for us. We have serious legal concerns if we get to the Capitol that day,” Cipollone said, testified Hutchinson.
Hutchinson, who sat away from Trump’s Oval Office, testified that days before the attack on the US Capitol, Meadows was aware of the impending violence that could unfold.
“Things can get real, real bad on January 6th,” she quoted him as saying inside the White House on January 2nd with her boss.
She testified that Giuliani said about January 6: “‘We’re going to the Capitol, it’s going to be great. The president is going there; he’s going to look powerful.'”
At the time, she told the committee of seven Democrats and two Republicans: “It was the first moment I remembered what might happen on January 6th that made me feel scared and nervous.”
This month’s hearing showed videotaped testimony of figures including Trump’s eldest daughter, Ivanka Trump, and his former Attorney General Bill Barr. He and other witnesses testified that they did not believe Trump’s false claims of widespread fraud and tried to dissuade him from them.
Before resigning, Barr told the Associated Press in an interview that there was no evidence of fraud. According to the committee’s video testimony from Trump’s White House press secretary at the time, Kayleigh McEnany, Trump was so enraged that he threw his lunch on the White House wall, smashed a porcelain dish and served ketchup. was left dripping from the wall.
Hutchinson told the committee that it was not unusual for Trump to throw food when he was angry: “There were times throughout my tenure with the chief of staff that I knew about him throwing dishes either or flipping the tablecloth to release all of the material. The table goes on the floor and potentially breaks or goes everywhere.”