The January 6 committee will host its sixth public hearing Tuesday, a decision that appears to have arrived at the 11th hour and due in large part to reported concerns of security threats posed to the day’s chief witness: Cassidy Hutchinson.
Hutchinson once served as an aide to former President Donald Trump’s chief of staff, Mark Meadows. This position permitted a unique vantage point into the happenings inside the Trump White House and, the committee argues, it has been her cooperation that has better illuminated how the 45th president and his allies in Congress rallied behind a bid to usurp the will of millions of voters and overturn the results of the 2020 election.
The former White House aide has testified that at least six Republican lawmakers sought pardons from Trump before and after Jan. 6 in hopes of avoiding any possible criminal charges they might face later. And she has offered some, albeit scant, details on an advance warning of violence that Meadows received from the Secret Service a few days before the Capitol assault.
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Her testimony will unfold live Tuesday and a stream is available below. Additional hearings are to come in July but an exact schedule has yet to be announced.
Some of the key excerpts from Hutchinson’s private testimony to the committee that was divulged in a lawsuit brought against the probe by Meadows.
In the footnotes of this same summary judgment, committee counsel notes earlier testimony from U.S. Capitol Police Sargeant Aquillino Gonell that underlines what the committee is expected to unpack in hearings to come: the mob violence, Trump’s incitement of it and his idleness as the Capitol was under siege.
Meadows was warned by Secret Service, Hutchinson has said. And Trump’s tweets left little to the imagination as he broadcast a “big rally” for 11 a.m. on Jan. 6. Oath Keepers and Proud Boys assembled around Washington early that morning and were on the National Mall by 10 a.m. Trump wouldn’t take the stage until 1 p.m. The president’s attorney, Rudy Giuliani called for trial by combat at 10:50 a.m.
Gonell told the panel that as he engaged in “hand-to-hand combat” with the those mobbing the complex, “all of them, all of them, were telling us ‘Trump sent us.’”
Tuesday, Jun 28, 2022 · 5:08:55 PM +00:00 · Brandi Buchman
Vicechair Liz Cheney has underlined how Hutchinson had an intimate view of Trump’s conduct on Jan. 6 and how we will hear new information about the actions and statements of Trump’s senior advisors, like Meadows and others including his chief counsel.
Tuesday, Jun 28, 2022 · 5:43:10 PM +00:00 · Brandi Buchman
In a huge moment, Hutchinson testifies that Trump was made aware the mob was heavily armed and when she told Meadows, he was basically non-responsive. As for Trump, Hutchinson said she heard him saying that he didn’t care the mob had weapons. He wanted it to be visually pleasing, he wanted his mob to be let in.
Then, he said, they could march to the Capitol.