Trump lunged at Secret Service agent who said he couldn't go to Capitol on January 6: aide
The January 6 Select Committee held a hearing to reveal "recently obtained evidence" Tuesday. Cassidy Hutchinson, a former aide to Trump Chief of Staff Mark Meadows, said that Trump insisted on going to the Capitol despite repeatedly being told he could not.
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Despite warnings from his top lawyers, former President Donald Trump insisted on going to the Capitol on Jan. 6 -- and he "lung[ed]" at a Secret Service agent who told him he couldn't, a former White House aide said.
Former top aide to Trump White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows, Cassidy Hutchinson, made the comments in a Jan. 6 Committee hearing Tuesday. She said that White House Counsel Pat Cipollone warned repeatedly that Trump going to the Capitol could put many people at the White House in legal jeopardy.
"On Jan. 3 Mr. Cipollone had approached me knowing that Mark [Meadows] had raised the prospect of going to the Capitol on Jan. 6," Hutchinson said. "Mr. Cipollone had a brief private conversation where he said to me 'we need to make sure this doesn't happen this would be legally a terrible idea for us.'"
"It's my understanding that Mr. Cipollone thought that Mr. Meadows was indeed pushing this along with the president," she added.
"Cipollone said something to the effect of, 'please make sure we don't go up to the Capitol... we're going to get charged with every crime imaginable,'" Hutchinson said. Among the crimes, she said, were obstruction of justice and "defrauding the electoral count.
Yet even after the White House had relayed to House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., and others that Trump would not go to the Capitol, the former president declared that he would in a speech on the Ellipse the morning of Jan. 6.
Trump left his rally speech expecting that he would be taken to the Capitol, Hutchinson said.
According to Hutchinson, former Deputy Chief of Staff for Operations Tony Ornato told her, "he was under the impression from Mr. Meadows that the off the record movement to the Capitol was still possible and likely to happen."
But when Secret Service agents broke the news to him, "the president had a very strong, very angry response to that. Tony described him as being irate. The president said something to the effect of, 'I'm the f-ing president, take me up to the Capitol now."
Hutchinson said Ornato also told her Trump tried to "grab at the steering wheel" then lunged at the Secret Service agent in charge at the time.
Read more by Fox News' Tyler Olson: Trump lunged at Secret Service agent after being told he couldn't go to Capitol on January 6: aide
Cassidy Hutchinson, a former aide to White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows, Tuesday provided some of the most detailed testimony yet of the House January 6 Committee's several hearings.
Hutchinson, who had significant access in the White House, detailed former President Donald Trump's demands to be taken to the Capitol on Jan. 6, his treatment of Secret Service agents, and his reaction to threats to his vice president.
Trump denied Hutchinson's allegations in a series of 12 posts on his Truth Social networking app. The former president said she is "A Total Phony!!!" and called the January 6 Committee "a Kangaroo Court."
Read about five of the top moments from Hutchinson's hearing Tuesday here: January 6 hearing: Top 5 moments of explosive Cassidy Hutchinson testimony on Trump, attack on Capitol
Former Assistant U.S Attorney Alex Little told 'Your World' the testimony from Cassidy Hutchinson, a former aide to White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows, could be 'incredibly problematic' for Trump.
Former Trump director of the Office of Management and Budget Mick Mulvaney Tuesday said he believes former White House aide Cassidy Hutchinson after her explosive testimony against former President Donald Trump in a January 6 Committee hearing.
"My guess is that before this is over, we will be hearing testimony from Ornato, Engle, (sic) and Meadows," Mulvaney said of the three biggest characters in Hutchinson's testimony.
Tony Ornato was the White House deputy chief of staff for operations. Robert Engel was Trump's top Secret Service agent. Mark Meadows was Trump's former chief of staff.
"This is explosive stuff. If Cassidy is making this up, they will need to say that. If she isn't they will have to corroborate," Mulvaney added. "I know her. I don't think she is lying."
Among other things, Hutchinson testified that Trump tried to grab the steering wheel of the "Beast" presidential limo and lunged at Engel when he refused to take Trump to the Capitol on January 6. White House lawyers had warned that going to the Capitol could constitute multiple crimes.
Fox News obtained a statement from January 6 Committee witness, former White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows aide Cassidy Hutchinson.
The statement was issued on behalf of Cassidy Hutchinson by her counsel Jody Hunt and William Jordan:
"Ms. Hutchinson is justifiably proud of her service to the country as a Special Assistant to the President. While she did not seek out the attention accompanying her testimony today, she believes that it was her duty and responsibility to provide the Committee with her truthful and candid observations of the events surrounding January 6. Ms. Hutchinson believes that January 6 was a horrific day for the country, and it is vital to the future of our democracy that it not be repeated."
Fox News' Kelly Phares contributed to this report.
Anchor of "Special Report" and Fox News chief political correspondent Bret Baier discusses Tuesday's January 6 Committee testimony: "Very compelling from beginning to end."
Former President Donald Trump Tuesday denied that he tried to grab the steering wheel of the "Beast" presidential limousine on Jan. 6 after a Secret Service agent told him he couldn't go to the Capitol.
Trump made the comments in the wake of Jan. 6 Committee hearing testimony from Cassidy Hutchinson, a former top aide to White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows. She said former Deputy Chief of Staff for Operations Tony Ornato told her Trump tried to "grab at the steering wheel" of the "Beast" presidential limo, and Trump then lunged at the Secret Service agent in charge at the time.
"Her Fake story that I tried to grab the steering wheel of the White House Limousine in order to steer it to the Capitol Building is 'sick' and fraudulent, very much like the Unselect Committee itself - Wouldn’t even have been possible to do such a ridiculous thing," Trump posted on his social media network Truth Social. "Her story of me throwing food is also false…and why would SHE have to clean it up, I hardly knew who she was?"
Read more by Fox News' Tyler Olson: Trump lunged at Secret Service agent after being told he couldn't go to Capitol on Jan. 6: aide
Cassidy Hutchinson, a former top aide to Trump White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows, said Tuesday that Meadows and former Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani each sought pardons after Jan. 6.
Hutchinson made the comments during a surprise Tuesday hearing for the Jan. 6 Committee, under questioning from Rep. Liz Cheney.
The congresswoman asked Hutchinson if Meadows or Giuliani ever sought pardons. Hutchinson said that they both did.
Ivanka Trump, Jared Kushner, White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany, White House counsel Pat Cipollone, deputy counsel Pat Philbin and others urged Trump to put out another stronger statement of unity on Jan. 7, the day after the attack on the Capitol.
The officials were concerned over rumors that Trump's Cabinet officials were considering invoking the 25th Amendment to remove the president from power following the events of Jan. 6.
Witness Cassidy Hutchinson testified Tuesday that the primary reason for the Jan. 7 statement was to put out a stronger message and condemn the attack.
"So the primary reason that I heard, other than, you know, we did not do enough on the 6th, we need to get a stronger message out there and condemn this is otherwise this will be your legacy. The secondary reason to that was think about what might happen in the final 15 days of your presidency. If we don't do this, there's already talk about invoking the 25th Amendment. You need this as cover," she told the committee.
Trump resisted saying that the election was over, and suggested adding language about pardons of GOP lawmakers who took part in the riot, Hutchinson said.
The president was urged to not include language on the pardons by the White House counsel's office.
Former President Donald Trump said that former Vice President Mike Pence "deserved" it as rioters chanted "Hang Mike Pence" at the Capitol on January 6, according to a former White House aide.
Cassidy Hutchinson, a top aide to former Chief of Staff Mark Meadows, said Tuesday that she heard a conversation between Meadows and White House Counsel Pat Cipollone and in which Meadows said that Trump was happy with the rioters.
"I remember Pat saying something to the effect of, 'Mark, we need to do something more. They're literally calling for the vice president to be f-ing hung,'" Hutchinson said. "And Mark had responded something to the effect of, 'You heard him Pat, he thinks Mike deserves it. He doesn't think they're doing anything wrong."
After The Associated Press published a story detailing that then-Attorney General Bill Barr had not found widespread fraud during the 2020 election, then-President Trump smashed a porcelain plate out of anger testimony revealed.
Rep. Liz Cheney stated: "The physical altercation that Miss Hutchinson described, the presidential vehicle was not the first time that the president had become very angry about issues relating to the election. On December 1, 2020 Attorney General Barr said in an interview that the Department of Justice had not found evidence of widespread election fraud sufficient to change the outcome of the election. Miss Hutchinson, how did the president react to hearing that news around the time that I understand the AP article went live?"
Hutchinson, former aide to Mark Meadows, said that Trump had thrown his lunch against the wall upon reading the AP article.
"I remember hearing noise coming from down the hallway, so I poked my head out of the office. I saw the valet walking towards our office. He had said, get the chief down to the dining room."
Hutchinson recounted that she followed, and once she arrived to the dining room, she saw that the valet was changing the tablecloth.
She said she "first noticed there is ketchup dripping down the wall and there's a shattered porcelain plate on the floor. The valet had articulated that the president was extremely angry at the attorney general's AP interview and had thrown his lunch against the wall, which was causing them to have to clean up. So I grabbed a towel and started wiping the ketchup up off of the wall to help the valet out."
Former President Donald Trump posted on his social network Truth Social responding to testimony from former White House aide Cassidy Hutchinson before the Jan. 6 Committee.
Hutchinson was a top aide to Chief of Staff Mark Meadows while Trump was falsely claiming that the presidential election was stolen in the lead-up to Jan. 6.
"I hardly know who this person, Cassidy Hutchinson, is, other than I heard very negative things about her (a total phony and 'leaker'), and when she requested to go with certain others of the team to Florida after my having served a full term in office, I personally turned her request down," Trump said. "Why did she want to go with us if she felt we were so terrible? I understand that she was very upset and angry that I didn’t want her to go, or be a member of the team. She is bad news!"
Cassidy Hutchinson, a former aide to Chief of Staff Mark Meadows, testified that House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy expressed frustration at former President Trump's desire to head to the Capitol on Jan. 6 along with his supporters.
During a call with McCarthy on Jan. 6, as relayed by Hutchinson, the GOP leader in the House said “don’t come up here.”
“You told me this whole week you aren't coming up here. Why would you lie to me?” Hutchinson said McCarthy proclaimed over the phone while the president was still delivering his speech on the Ellipse.
“I said, I'm not lying. I wasn't lying to you. sir. I we're not going to the Capitol,” responded Hutchinson.
"And he said, well, he just said it on stage. Figure it out. Don't come up here.”
Former President Donad Trump knew many of his supporters in Washington, D.C., on Jan. 6 were armed and demanded that they be let into a secure area at his rally, Cassidy Hutchinson, a former aide to Chief of Staff Mark Meadows, said at a Jan. 6 hearing Tuesday.
"He thought the mags were at fault for not letting everybody in. But another leading reason, likely the primary reason, is because he wanted it full and he was angry that we weren't letting people through the mags with weapons -- what the Secret Service deems as weapons," she said in recorded testimony Tuesday.
"I was in the vicinity of a conversation where I overheard the president say something to the effect of, you know, 'I don't f-ing care that they have weapons,'" she also said via video. "'They're not here to hurt me. Take the f-ing mags away. Let my people in. They can march the Capitol from here. Let people in, take the f-ing mags away.'"
Hutchinson also said former Deputy Chief of Staff Tony Ornato had told Trump something to the effect of, "They they have weapons they don't want confiscated by the Secret Service."
Rep. Liz Cheney, R-Wyo., during a Jan. 6 Committee hearing Tuesday revealed that members of the crowd at former President Donald Trump's rally on the Ellipse on Jan. 6, 2020, had several weapons confiscated, while police spotted even more armed people outside of the rally.
"They had weapons and other items that were confiscated pepper spray knives, brass knuckles, tasers, body armor, gas masks, batons, blunt weapons," Cheney said. "And those were just from the people who chose to go through the security for the president's event on the Ellipse, not the several thousand members of the crowd who refused to go through the mags."
Police transmissions also identified several people with firearms near the National Mall, including at least one AR-15 and an armed person who was in a tree.
Hutchinson also said she heard a conversation between White House Deputy Chief of Staff Tony Ornato and Chief of Staff Mark Meadows in which Ornato told Meadows he'd informed Trump that the crowd was armed.
Former aide to Trump White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows Cassidy Hutchinson said Tuesday that her boss predicted days before that things could go awry as Congress certified electoral votes on Jan. 6.
Hutchinson detailed a conversation she had walking former Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani out of the White House to Rep. Liz Cheney, R-Wyo. According to Hutchinson, Giuliani said Jan. 6 would be "a great day" and that Trump would be on Capitol Hill and "look powerful."
Hutchinson said she then asked Meadows about Jan. 6.
"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,'" Hutchinson said.
Hutchinson said she'd heard "general plans" for a rally and "tentative movements" about Trump possibly going to the Capitol. But after hearing Giuliani's comments and Meadows' response, she said, "that was the first moment that I remember feeling scared and nervous for what could happen on Jan. 6.
House Jan. 6 Committee Chairman Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., said he called the committee back to Washington, D.C., for an unscheduled hearing because it's important Americans "immediately" hear testimony from former Trump White House aide Cassidy Hutchinson.
Hutchinson was an assistant to former White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows and had significant access inside the White House after the 2020 presidential election.
"In recent days, the select committee has obtained new information dealing with what was going on in the White House on January 6th and days prior," Thompson said. "Specific, detailed information about what the former president and his top aides were doing and saying in those critical hours. First hand details of what transpired in the office of the White House chief of staff just steps from the Oval Office as the threats of violence became clear."
"It's important that the American people hear that information immediately," Thompson said.
The Jan. 6 Committee hearing with former Trump White House aide Cassidy Hutchinson gaveled in Tuesday afternoon, led by Chairman Bennie Thompson, D-Miss.
Hutchinson was an assistant to former White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows and had significant access to events in the Trump White House after the 2020 presidential election.
Trump-allied lawyer John Eastman's phone was seized by the FBI last week, Fox News' Bill Mears and David Spunt confirm.
Eastman is suing the federal government arguing that he was not allowed to see a copy of the warrant until after his phone was seized, and that he was not allowed to see the warrant's supporting affidavit.
Eastman was one of the lawyers in Trump-world after the 2020 election arguing that former Vice President Mike Pence could refuse to certify some states' electoral votes.
The Jan. 6 Committee will bring in Cassidy Hutchinson, a former aide to Trump Chief of Staff Mark Meadows, to testify in its surprise hearing Tuesday, Fox News' Bryan Boughton has confirmed.
The committee was expected to push off any further hearings until July, after holding several in the last couple of weeks. But it announced Monday that it would hold an additional hearing Tuesday to reveal "recently obtained evidence."
It's not clear what that evidence will be. It's also not clear exactly what Hutchinson will testify about. She was previously interviewed by the committee and her testimony was played via video in a hearing last week. But now she will appear in person.
The committee has continued to collect evidence and conduct interviews even as it's held several public hearings recently. It notably recently subpoenaed raw documentary footage from filmmaker Alex Holder. Holder also testified before the committee.
The House Committee investigating the U.S. Capitol insurrection on Jan. 6, 2021 announced a new hearing for Tuesday, where it will present "recently obtained evidence."
The committee has continued to gather evidence while holding public hearings, which started three weeks ago, including new footage of Trump and his senior campaign officials recorded by British filmmaker Alex Holder.
Holder announced last week that he turned over all footage that he shot in the final weeks of Trump’s 2020 reelection campaign, citing compliance with a congressional subpoena.
The footage reportedly included exclusive interviews with Trump, his children and then-Vice President Mike Pence. The footage also includes moments recorded before and after Jan. 6.
It is not known if Holder's footage will be shown at the newly announced hearing on Tuesday.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
The Jan. 6 Committee announced Monday that it will hold a hearing 1 p.m. ET Tuesday to reveal "recently obtained evidence," in an unexpected move after the committee planned to push hearings until July.
A press release from the committee did not detail what that evidence will be or what witnesses may be present. The committee did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Fox News.
The press release also did not detail which lawmaker or lawmakers will be expected to lead the hearing.
For more on the story, click here: Jan. 6 Committee adds previously unscheduled hearing for Tuesday to reveal 'recently obtained evidence'
Click here for previous coverage of the January 6 committee hearing.
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