Trump wants to know whether Cassidy Hutchinson will be prosecuted for telling tall tales



Congressional investigators released a report last week marking some of the distance the Jan. 6 Select Committee and one of its star witnesses journeyed away from the truth as a means to "legislatively prosecute" former President Donald Trump.

The Republican front-runner is now wondering whether there will be consequences for one of the individuals caught casting shade on him with tall tales.

"Our great Secret Service has totally CRUSHED Cassidy Hutchinson's (who I barely knew) made up (FAKE!) stories about me roughing up Secret Service Agents from the back seat of the Beast (Limo)," Trump wrote Monday on Truth Social.

"Has she now changed her testimony?" added Trump.

House Subcommittee on Oversight Chairman Barry Loudermilk (R-Ga.) released a report last week indicating the Jan. 6 committee erased records; hid numerous transcribed interviews; failed to turn recordings over to Republican lawmakers; suppressed evidence that failed to conform to Democrats' preferred narrative; and colluded with Fulton County's scandal-plagued Democratic district attorney.

The congressional report, penned by the House Administration Committee’s oversight subpanel, also highlighted an instance when the Jan. 6 committee went out of its way to lend credence to sensational gossip without giving a hearing to known witnesses whose firsthand accounts would ultimately paint an entirely different picture.

Blaze News previously reported that Cassidy Hutchinson, who served as assistant to Trump's former chief of staff Mark Meadows, sat for six transcribed interviews and one publicized hearing with the committee. In her fourth transcribed interview in June 2022, she provided the committee with something they obviously figured they could use. After all, the Jan. 6 committee scheduled Hutchinson's public hearing to take place eight days later.

Despite knowing of other witnesses who may have provided contradictory testimony — including the Secret Service agents featured in the story — the committee put Hutchinson on the stand. She then spun a yarn about how Trump got into a scuffle with a Secret Service agent and attempted to wrest control of the presidential limousine.

Hutchinson claimed that on Jan. 6, Tony Ornato, a former Secret Service agent and Trump's deputy chief of staff, "described [Trump] as being irate. The president said something to the effect of, 'I'm the f'ing president, take me up to the Capitol now,' to which [Secret Service Agent Bobby Engel] responded, 'Sir, we have to go back to the West Wing.'"

"The president reached up towards the front of the vehicle to grab at the steering wheel," continued Hutchinson. "Mr. Engel grabbed his arm, said, 'Sir, you need to take your hand off the steering wheel.'"

Hutchinson, who apparently even got the type of vehicle at the heart of her story wrong, suggested that Trump then lunged toward Engel.

The congressional report released last week indicated that the Jan. 6 committee only got around to interviewing the witnesses with actual insights into the story months after Hutchinson shared her fiction with the nation — when "it was obvious Republicans would win control of the House."

Ornato "directly refuted Hutchinson's testimony," telling the Jan. 6 committee in a Nov. 29, 2022, transcribed interview that "the first time he had ever heard the story Hutchinson claims [he] told her on January 6 was during Hutchinson's public testimony."

Hutchinson's story was also contradicted by the Secret Service agent who was driving Trump to and from the Ellipse on Jan. 6.

While the Jan. 6 committee did not bother to ask the agent about Hutchinson's alternate history during his Nov. 7, 2022, transcribed interview, the agent brought it up anyway, insisting that he "did not see him reach [redacted]. [President Trump] never grabbed the steering wheel. I didn't see him, you know, lunge to try to get into the front seat at all."

"The testimony of these four White House employees directly contradicts claims made by Cassidy Hutchinson and by the Select Committee in the Final report," said the Oversight report. "None of the White House employees corroborated Hutchinson's sensational story."

In his Truth Social post Monday, Trump wrote, "Will she be prosecuted for what she did and said? What about the Unselect J6 Committee. They destroyed almost everything, including real evidence and findings. What's going to happen with them — Serious crimes have been committed?"

Extra to seeking accountability for Hutchinson and the committee at large, Trump also recently suggested that former Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.) "should go to Jail along with the rest of the Unselect Committee."

Cheney, the Jan. 6 committee's vice chairwoman, was the one to press Hutchinson to testify under oath during the public hearing about what she imagined Trump had done when being driven away from his speech at the Ellipse on Jan. 6.

After Hutchinson testified under oath, Cheney gave her a hug, later telling ABC News' "This Week," "What Cassidy Hutchinson did was an unbelievable example of bravery and of courage and patriotism in the face of real pressure."

"I am absolutely confident in her credibility. I'm confident in her testimony," added Cheney.

It appears Cheney's confidence was misplaced. While she has yet to walk back her supportive remarks, voters spared her the need, ousting her in the 2022 Wyoming Republican primary in a landslide vote.

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Pelosi announces House select committee to investigate Jan. 6 riot



House Democrats are proceeding with yet another investigation into the Jan. 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol after Republicans blocked legislation to establish a 9/11-style commission last month.

Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) on Thursday announced plans to form a select committee to investigate the events of Jan. 6, emphasizing her view that such an investigation should be "complementary" to a future bipartisan commission.

"This morning, with great solemnity and sadness, I am announcing that the House will be establishing a select committee on the January Sixth insurrection," Pelosi told reporters during her weekly press conference. "Jan. 6 was one of the darkest days in our nation's history ... it is imperative that we establish the truth of that day and ensure that an attack of that kind cannot happen and that we root out the causes of it all."

.@SpeakerPelosi: "This morning, with great solemnity and sadness, I'm announcing that the House will be establishin… https://t.co/8VNrSakGdn

— CSPAN (@cspan) 1624547930.0

A bipartisan bill that would have created a 10-member commission equally split between Republicans and Democrats was filibustered in the U.S. Senate by the GOP minority. Republican leadership argued the commission would be "duplicative" and "potentially counterproductive" given ongoing bipartisan investigations into the events of Jan. 6 by various House and Senate committees and the criminal investigations conducted by U.S. law enforcement. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) said the commission would be a "purely political exercise" and lobbied his colleagues against the bill.

Democrats were infuriated by the Republicans' actions and accused them of attempting to cover up what happened on Jan. 6 out of loyalty to former President Donald Trump, whom they blame for inciting the violence.

Republicans countered that a new commission would be used by Democrats as a political weapon to attack Trump supporters ahead of the 2022 midterm elections.

The select committee will combine the various House investigations into the Jan. 6 riots into a single effort to examine how a mob of Trump supporters was able to enter the Capitol building in an attempt to stop a joint session of Congress from certifying President Joe Biden's Electoral College victory.

Pelosi did not announce who will lead the committee or name the Democrats she will appoint to serve on it. "I will make those announcements later," she said.

Asked by reporters about Republican participation on the committee, Pelosi said that she hopes House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) "will appoint responsible people to the committee."

When reports on Wednesday indicated Pelosi would move forward with the select committee plan, McCarthy was dismissive of the effort, saying, "I'm sure it will be political because that's the whole way that she's handled it."