GOP aims to discredit 'sensational' Cassidy Hutchinson testimony with new Jan. 6 report
House Republicans on Monday issued a new report that aimed to discredit Cassidy Hutchinson, the former White House staffer who served as a star witness for the House January 6 Committee.
Hutchinson, NBC News reported, made waves when she "testified under oath, privately and publicly before the Jan. 6 panel, that she had heard that Trump had lunged at the steering wheel of the presidential SUV and got into a physical altercation with his lead Secret Service agent after the president was told he could not go to the Capitol to join his supporters after speaking at a rally on the Ellipse on Jan. 6."
The new report, issued by Rep. Barry Loudermilk (R-GA), cites "unnamed Trump White House staffers" to dispute this claim, saying that, “None of the White House Employees corroborated Hutchinson’s sensational story about President Trump lunging for the steering wheel of the Beast. However, some witnesses did describe the President’s mood after the speech at the Ellipse,” and that he was "irate."
Secret Service officials under Trump had already denied the story.
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One of the key points of Hutchinson's testimony was that she only came forward after changing lawyers, abandoning a counsel who had been paid for by Trump's circle. That original attorney, Stefan Passantino, has faced an ethics investigation amid accusations that he tried to tamper with Hutchinson's testimony. He has filed a defamation suit against former federal prosecutor Andrew Weissmann for alleging this on cable TV.
"Let me be clear: since Ms. Hutchinson changed counsel, she has and will continue to tell the truth. While other individuals — often men who occupied more senior roles — would not speak with the Select Committee, Ms. Hutchinson and many other witnesses courageously stepped forward," stated Hutchinson's current attorney, William H. Jordan, in a statement.
"Yet she now finds herself being questioned by you and your Subcommittee regarding her testimony and on matters that may also be the subject of ongoing criminal proceedings against Mr. Trump."