White House aide testifies: Trump flew into rage on Jan. 6, lunged at Secret Service agent
Former President Trump knew that the crowd at his Jan. 6, 2021, rally had guns and other weapons but encouraged them to march to the Capitol anyway, White House aide Cassidy Hutchinson testified Tuesday at a hearing on the insurrection.
Hutchinson, the former assistant to Trump Chief of Staff Mark Meadows, said Trump also physically grabbed the steering wheel of the presidential limousine and attacked a Secret Service agent when he was told his security detail would not take him to the Capitol on that day.
She added that Trump was furious that the audience at his speech near the White House wasn’t at capacity, even though he was told by the Secret Service that there was a large number of people outside the fence who had weapons and weren’t being screened by magnetometers, referred to as “mags.”
At that point, Hutchinson said Trump told them, “I don’t f—ing care that they have weapons, they’re not here to hurt me. Take the f— ing mags away.”
After the speech, in which Trump told the crowd that he would be going with them to the Capitol, the Secret Service instead returned him to the White House. Trump became irate, Hutchinson said she was told by Anthony Ornato, Trump’s chief of operations. The head of his security detail, Secret Service agent Bobby Engel, who was traveling with the president, was in the room when the story was relayed, she said.
“The president reached up towards the front of the vehicle to grab at the steering wheel. Mr. Engel grabbed
his arm, and said, ‘Sir, you need to take your hand off the steering wheel. We’re going back to the West Wing. We’re not going to the Capitol.’ Mr. Trump then used his free hand to lunge towards Bobby Engel,” Hutchinson said, adding that the agent gestured toward his clavicles to describe where the president lunged at him. Trump denied the allegation during the hearing in a post on his Truth Social platform.
As the White House struggled with how to respond in the days after the attack, including discussions among the president’s Cabinet of invoking the 25th Amendment to remove him from power, Meadows and Trump lawyer Rudolph W. Giuliani both sought presidential pardons for their actions on Jan. 6, Hutchinson said.
Hutchinson’s in-person testimony before the committee Tuesday came just a day after the panel abruptly scheduled the hearing in order to “present recently obtained evidence and receive witness testimony,” despite setting expectations last week that it needed time to review new information
and wouldn’t meet again until mid-july. Little known outside the White House or Capitol Hill, Hutchinson was a constant fixture at Meadows’ side, giving her a detailed knowledge of the inner workings of the Trump White House and putting her in a position to overhear conversations as Trump and his advisers planned to reverse Joe Biden’s victory.
Chairman Bennie Thompson (D-miss.) said in his opening statement that the evidence presented Tuesday, could not wait until the committee reconvened next month.
“It’s important that the American people hear that information immediately,” Thompson said.
Hutchinson said Giuliani told her on Jan. 2, 2021, after a meeting at the White House that Trump would be going to the Capitol on Jan. 6. Hutchinson said she asked Meadows about it immediately afterward.
“He didn’t look up from his phone and said something to the effect of, ‘There’s a lot going on, Cass, but I don’t know. Things might get real, real bad on Jan. 6,’” she said.