Sarah Matthews, once a deputy press secretary under former President Donald Trump, resigned on Jan. 6, 2021, after hordes of Trump’s supporters laid armed siege to the U.S. Capitol. Now she will cooperate with the Jan. 6 committee.
At the time of her resignation, Matthews said it was an honor to serve Trump and she was “proud of the policies” the former president enacted. Still, the insurrection, it would seem, was a bridge too far.
“I was deeply disturbed by what I saw today,” Matthews said on Jan. 6. “I’ll be stepping down from my role, effective immediately. Our nation needs a peaceful transfer of power.”
Matthews is expected to testify before the committee publicly as soon as next week, according to multiple news outlets citing anonymous sources. A committee aide did not immediately respond to a request for comment to Daily Kos on Wednesday.
The committee announced late Tuesday that it would hold its next public hearing on July 12 at 10 AM ET. It is not yet clear if Matthews will appear for live testimony on that day as details about the forthcoming hearing have been scant.
Committee Chairman Bennie Thompson and Vice Chair Liz Cheney have said previously that they expect the upcoming hearings will focus on how the mob was incited to violence by Trump, the extremist elements present (i.e., Proud Boys, Oath Keepers) on Jan. 6, and how Trump idled inside of the White House as pleas for help stacked up at furious speed.
There are at least two more hearings to come before a final report is issued by the committee later this year.
Matthews was among the first former Trump administration officials to rush to the defense of Cassidy Hutchinson following Hutchinson’s bombshell testimony to investigators last week.
Those “downplaying” Hutchinson’s role or access during her stint in the Trump White House, “[don’t] understand how the Trump [White House] worked,” Matthews said in a post on Twitter on June 28.
Matthews could not be reached for comment Wednesday.
After her resignation from the White House on Jan. 6, Matthews went on to work as the communications director for the Republican arm of the House Select Committee on Climate Crisis.
Matthews has already cooperated with the committee privately; snippets of her video deposition before investigators were played during last week’s hearing.
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