A key piece of testimony against former President Donald Trump has been called into question, further weakening the credibility of the January 6 Committee’s star witness.
Cassidy Hutchinson, a former aide to ex-White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows, testified under oath that she heard Tony Ornato, the head of presidential security, claim that Trump lunged for the steering wheel of his limousine to force the vehicle back to the Capitol during the January 6 riot. However, new evidence has emerged that contradicts her account. According to a report by The Daily Caller, a new witness interviewed by the Department of Homeland Security’s Office of the Inspector General stated that the incident Hutchinson described never happened.
The report revealed that multiple Secret Service agents who were in the limousine with Trump on January 6 were interviewed. The driver confirmed that while Trump was angry when his request to go to the Capitol was denied, no such physical altercation occurred. “[Redacted] witnesses said those actions did not occur,” the report stated, challenging Hutchinson’s claim.
This is not the first time Hutchinson’s testimony has been disputed. In December 2023, a lawsuit filed by her former attorney brought more of her statements into question. According to Just the News, text messages included in the lawsuit suggest that Hutchinson was initially reluctant to comply with the January 6 Committee’s investigation. These texts also imply that she might have considered leaking information about the committee’s proceedings to the media independently of her lawyer.
The texts, which date back to her initial closed-door interview with the committee, predate her revised account of events after she parted ways with her first lawyer, Stefan Passantino. Hutchinson later claimed that Passantino had pressured her to stay “loyal” to Trump. However, Passantino has denied these allegations, stating that he never coached Hutchinson to lie or attempted to influence her testimony. His lawsuit against Andrew Weissmann, an MSNBC legal analyst and former prosecutor, alleges that Weissmann falsely accused him of coaching Hutchinson to lie in her congressional testimony.
Text messages reportedly from Hutchinson also indicate that, despite Passantino’s advice, she was initially hesitant to cooperate with the committee. “I don’t know. But I don’t want to comply. Stefan wants me to comply,” Hutchinson wrote in one exchange, further complicating the narrative surrounding her testimony.
These revelations cast further doubt on Hutchinson’s credibility as a witness and raise questions about the integrity of the January 6 Committee’s investigation.