About five or six Secret Service agents have testified before the grand jury deciding if former President Donald Trump should be indicted for his actions in connection to the insurrection on January 6, 2021, sources have told NBC News.
The grand jury is looking into the riot as well as the attempts to interfere with the peaceful transfer of power.
The Secret Service agents who appeared were complying with subpoenas. It remains unclear how close the agents were to Mr Trump on January 6 as well as what information they provided to the grand jury.
The investigation led by Special Counsel Jack Smith is separate from the investigation he also leads into Mr Trump’s alleged mishandling of national security information which led to the former president’s indictment and Miami arraignment.
Before that case was moved to Florida, about two dozen Secret Service agents appeared before the grand jury in Washington DC, according to NBC.
Secret Service agents testifying in the probe into the insurrection may be able to shine more light onto the account shared by a former aide to then-Trump Chief of Staff Mark Meadows.
Cassidy Hutchinson told the since-disbanded House Select January 6 Committee that she heard a secondhand account that Mr Trump wanted the Secret Service to take him to the US Capitol after his speech on January 6, 2021.
According to her testimony, Mr Trump tried to grab the steering wheel of the Secret Service vehicle and reached for the “clavicles” of the agent Bobby Engel, who was driving at the time. Mr Trump has rejected this version of events.
Ms Hutchinson testified that she heard about the incident from Tony Ornato, who took a leave of absence from the Secret Service to instead take up a role as deputy chief of staff for Mr Trump in 2019. He went back to the Secret Service after Mr Trump left office.
Both Mr Engel and Mr Ornato have since departed from the Secret Service and it’s unknown if they have appeared before the grand jury.
Last year, the Department of Homeland Security Office of Inspector General told Congress that all texts between agents on January 5 and 6 2021 were lost, claiming it was part of an already planned software upgrade.
Those communications and the recollections of agents could make the grand jury aware of how much Mr Trump knew about the possibility of violence on January 6 and how he reacted to the threats against then-Vice President Mike Pence, who refused to aid Mr Trump’s attempts to overturn the electoral college results after President Joe Biden’s victory.
