In a stunning testimony Tuesday during the sixth public hearing on the Capitol attack, Cassidy Hutchinson, a former aide to Trump’s White House chief of staff Mark Meadows, said he heard President Trump try to get behind the wheel of the presidential car and threw himself at the head of his bodyguards after he was told he could not go to the Capitol on January 6, 2021.
Hutchinson said that after Trump delivered a speech to Ellipse’s rioters that day, she returned to the White House and saw Anthony Ornato, a senior secret service official who was detailed in the White House and served as deputy chief of operations. . Ornato drew her into his office, where then-Trump security chief Robert Engel was sitting in a chair, looking “somewhat confused and a little lost,” she said.
She said Ornato told her that when Trump entered the Beast, the president’s heavily armored SUV, he still believed it would be possible for him to go to the Capitol. But when Engel told him they couldn’t for security reasons, Trump had “a very strong, very angry response,” she said.
It is clear from today’s testimony that Trump wanted to go to the Capitol with the armed mob, despite warnings not to do so by his advisers.
When the Secret Service ruled out the possibility, the former president erupted in anger in the suburbs where he was driving. pic.twitter.com/Ef69CAenn6
– Committee of 6 January (@ January6thCmte) 28 June 2022
“The president said something like ‘I’m the effective president, take me to the Capitol now,'” she said.
When he was told it would not be possible, Trump “reached for the front of the car to get behind the wheel,” she said, Ornato said.
Engel then took his hand and said, “Sir, you must take your hand off the wheel. “We’re going back to the West Wing, we’re not going to the Capitol,” she said.
In response, she said, Mr. Trump then used his free hand to throw himself at Engel, noting that when Ornato told her the story, he “waved at his collarbones.”
Hutchinson told the commission that Engel had not corrected or disputed anything Ornato had said.
Cassidy Hutchinson, a former aide to Trump’s White House chief of staff Mark Meadows, testified at a hearing of the House of Representatives selection committee to investigate the attack on the US Capitol on January 6, Tuesday, June 28, 2022. BRANDON BELL / Getty Images
Following the hearing, the Secret Service issued a statement stating that it intended to respond to Hutchinson’s testimony. “The United States Secret Service has been cooperating with the selected committee since its inception in the spring of 2021 and will continue to do so, including in accordance with protocol to the committee on new allegations made in today’s testimony,” a U.S. intelligence spokesman said. Anthony Guglielmi said in a statement to CBS News.
A source close to the Secret Service confirmed to CBS News that Engel and the driver were ready to testify under oath that none of the men had been physically assaulted or attacked by Trump and that the former president had never thrown himself at the wheel of the vehicle. means.
They do not dispute that Trump was angry or that he wanted to be taken to the Capitol, in the language Hutchinson told the committee.
The commission also released recorded testimony from then-White House spokeswoman Kaylee Makenani, who said that after returning to the White House, Trump was still trying to go to the Capitol.
“I believe that when we returned to the White House, he said he wanted to physically walk with the demonstrators,” Makenani said. “According to my notes, he said he would be fine just riding in the Beast. As far as I remember, he wanted to be part of the campaign in some way.
Hutchinson’s testimony about what happened in the car is one of many revelations that emerged during the hearing. Hutchinson also said that Trump knew that some members of the crowd at his rally in the Ellipse, before the Capitol riot, had weapons and other weapons, but said he did not care and still wanted them to be allowed to his rally.
She testified that Trump said “something along the lines of, ‘I don’t care if they have guns.’ here. Let the people in. Remove the airing magazine.
Trump responded to Hutchinson’s testimony about his startup on Truth Social.
“I hardly know who this man is, Cassidy Hutchinson, except that I’ve heard a lot of negative things about her (complete fake and ‘leaking’),” he wrote.
He also referred directly to the alleged car accident, calling it both “fake” and “sick” and deceptive.
“It wouldn’t even be possible to do such a ridiculous thing,” Trump added. \
Separately, Trump said, “The woman who was a BIG Trump fan long after Jan. 6 (if her fake stories were true, why would she want to be?) Was released and not wanted in Florida, so she thought she was fake and completely scandalous stories, the craziest of which have already turned out to be a complete lie. The secret services said, according to the media, that it was not true. Wow! It has already lost all credibility, just like the guerrilla witch hunt immortalized by the Unselect Committee on Political Hacks. MAGA! ”
Nicole Sganga contributed to this report.
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Victoria Albert is a senior news editor at CBS News. Contact her at victoria.albert@viacomcbs.com
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