A GOP-led subcommittee investigating the committee that investigated the Jan. 6 attack released a report revealing the beast’s handler said former President Donald Trump did not lash out at him on the day of the Capitol riot.
The committee, led by Rep. Barry Loudermilk, R-Ga., also questioned why the committee on Jan. 6 had not interviewed the Secret Service agent who was driving the vehicle when Trump allegedly threw himself behind the wheel until after his lawyer had floated the idea.
The attorney asked for the driver to be interviewed after Hutchinson made the allegation about Trump’s outburst.
The driver then testified to the committee on Jan. 6 “that he specifically refuted the version of events that Hutchinson recounted,” the report said.
The driver of the SUV testified that he ‘didn’t see him reach (redacted). (President Trump) never took the wheel. I didn’t see him, you know, lunge to try to get into the front seat at all,’ according to part of the transcript in the report.
The transcript of the entire interview with the unnamed driver has not been released.
The House subcommittee released a report they claim pokes holes in Cassidy Hutchinson’s dramatic testimony about Donald Trump’s actions that day.
Their report claims that Hutchinson’s former White House aide’s testimony that Trump threw himself behind the wheel of the Beast when a driver wouldn’t take him to the Capitol was not corroborated by four other former White House staffers.
The report consists of transcribed interviews conducted by the committee on January 6, led by Democrats last Congress. House Republicans have now obtained the interviews, which were previously only released in redacted form. They claim Democrats used newsrooms to spin testimony.
The House subcommittee investigating the Jan. 6 committee has released a report they claim pokes holes in Cassidy Hutchinson’s dramatic testimony about Donald Trump’s actions that day.
Hutchinson testified under oath that Trump had done just that, getting into a physical altercation with a Secret Service agent when he was told he could not go to the Capitol to join supporters after speaking at a rally on the Ellipse on 6 January 2021.
She said Anthony Ornato, the White House deputy chief of operations, called her into his office and then shared a story Agent Bobby Engel, head of Trump’s Secret Service detail, had allegedly shared with him moments before.
Hutchinson testified that Ornato waived her office and then shared a story about ‘the president that Agent Robert (‘Bobby’) Engel, the head of President Trump’s Secret Service detail, allegedly told him moments before. Ornato was not at the Ellipse that day, but instead remained at the White House during President Trump’s speech. This new story is the version of events the select committee rushed Hutchinson to share at the select committee’s much-publicised ’emergency hearing’, according to the report.
Hutchinson testified that Trump was so angry that his Secret Service agents refused to take him to the Capitol on January 6 that he lunged for one of their throats.
A former White House official ‘rejected the premise’ that Trump had ever planned to go to the Capitol after his speech at the Ellipse, according to the report. Another former White House staffer testified that he was in Ornato’s office after Trump returned to the White House.
Ornato then went into detail, describing Trump’s mood, which he characterized as “irritated,” but never mentioned that he tried to grab the vehicle’s steering wheel.
Hutchinson had also testified to the panel on January 6 that Trump had said former Vice President Mike Pence deserved to be ‘hanged’ when he saw a crowd on television chanting ‘Hang Mike Pence’.
A former White House staffer referred to as ‘Employee One’ who was with Trump that day said he did not hear the president comment on the songs at all.
The report also accused the committee on Jan. 6 of suppressing evidence that Trump tried to call in the National Guard during the riot.
Staff One testified that Trump had wanted to talk to former Joint Chiefs of Staff Mark Milley and then-Speaker Nancy Pelosi about bringing in the guard.
The employee said they ‘didn’t hear about the National Guard being mentioned until January 6th when things happened.’ But the committee on Jan. 6 had prefaced the issue by admitting that Trump “raised the idea of 10,000 National Guardsmen supporting law enforcement on Jan. 6,” according to the report.
A transcript released by Loudermilk on Friday of an interview with Ornato corroborates the notion that Trump requested the shift, based on a conversation he had with former chief of staff Mark Meadows.
“When it comes to the National Guard declaration of having 10,000 troops or any other number of troops, do you recall any discussion before the 6th about whether and how many National Guard troops should be deployed on January 6th?” asked an employee from the Ornato committee.
‘I remember he had – he was on the phone with (Bowser) and we – I had gone in for something and I was there and he was on the phone with her and wanted to make sure she had everything, what she needed. . Because I think it was the concern of anti and pro groups clashing is what I remember. And not near the Capitol, this was just out on the mall or at the event; and wanted to know if she needed more guards,” Ornato replied.
He then said Trump wanted to make sure the 10,000 figure was ‘enough’.
“And I remember the number 10,000, you know, the president wants to make sure you have enough. You know, he’s willing to ask for 10,000. I remember that number. Now that you said it, it reminded me of that. And that she was ready. She had, I think it was 350 or so for checking intersections and that kind of thing that wasn’t in law enforcement at the time. And so that’s the only thing I remember with that number of 10,000 National Guardsmen,’ he continued.
DC Mayor Muriel Bowser asked for only 300, requesting that they be unarmed and work with local police.
Ornato said the White House then asked the Defense Department to have a “quick reaction force” on hand if Bowser’s request wasn’t enough.
‘The only thing I remember with the DOD and the National Guard was, even though the mayor didn’t want any more National Guard in DC, a request was made to have some sort of, for lack of a better term, a rapid response force out at Joint Base Andrews is that it was a military installation,’ Ornato said in his interview, according to the transcript.
‘I remember Chief Meadows talking to DOD about it, I think. I remember Chief Meadows telling me that, “Hey, there would be National Guard that would be at Joint Base Andrews if they need anything more, we’re going to – the mayor would need something.” we have to make sure they’re out there.”
The new report also questions why the committee invested “almost no resources” on Jan. 6 into two pipe bombs found outside the headquarters of the Republican National Committee (RNC) and the Democratic National Committee (DNC).
“Despite the suspect’s appearance on numerous USCP CCTV cameras and the FBI’s efforts to interview over 800 people and evaluate more than 300 tips, the suspect remains at large more than three years after the pipe bombs were planted,” it said in the report.
“The subcommittee is concerned about the integrity of the security investigation conducted by the United States Secret Service on the morning of January 6. As a result of the USSS’s failure to properly sweep the DNC, Vice President-elect Kamala Harris came within feet of a viable pipe bomb. ‘
