Hutchinson's testimony summary
That’s it from me, after a historic day in Washington. Here’s how the January 6 committee’s sixth public hearing unfolded:
- A former senior White House aide testified that Donald Trump knew some of his supporters were armed on January 6 and still encouraged them to march on the Capitol. Cassidy Hutchinson, a former senior adviser to White House chief of staff Mark Meadows, said she overheard a conversation with Trump shortly before he addressed a rally crowd on January 6. “I don’t f’ing care that they have weapons. They’re not here to hurt me,” Trump said, according to Hutchinson. “Let my people in. They can march to the Capitol from here.” The rally where Trump spoke culminated in the insurrection, which resulted in several deaths.
- Liz Cheney described potential witness tampering among Trump’s allies in connection to the January 6 investigation. Cheney, the Republican vice-chair of the committee, quoted testimony from two witnesses who said they were advised to remain loyal to Trump in their comments to investigators. “I think most Americans know that attempting to influence witnesses to testify untruthfully presents very serious concerns,” Cheney said. “We will be discussing these issues as a committee, carefully considering our next steps.”
- Trump wanted to go to the Capitol with his supporters on January 6, so much so that he tried to redirect his car when aides told him they would be returning to the White House. Hutchinson said Tony Ornato, the White House deputy chief of staff, told her that Trump was “irate” when he was informed he would not be going to the Capitol. Already inside a car with his aides, Trump tried to grab for the vehicle’s steering wheel and then lunged at the throat of a Secret Service agent, Hutchinson said.
- Meadows told Hutchinson that Trump had endorsed insurrectionists’ chants of “Hang Mike Pence!” on January 6. As Trump’s supporters stormed the Capitol, Hutchinson was involved in a conversation with Meadows and Pat Cipollone, the White House counsel. According to Hutchinson, Cipollone told Meadows, “Mark, we need to do something more. They’re literally calling for the vice-president to be f-ing hung.” Meadows replied, “You heard [Trump], Pat. He thinks Mike deserves it. He doesn’t think they are doing anything wrong.”
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Some of Trump’s closest advisers, including Meadows, expressed fear days before the insurrection that January 6 could turn violent. Hutchinson said Rudy Giuliani, one of Trump’s campaign lawyers, asked her on January 2 whether she was “excited” for January 6, the day that Congress was scheduled to certify Joe Biden’s victory in the 2020 election. When Hutchinson asked Meadows about Giuliani’s comments, he said, “There’s a lot going on, Cass, but I don’t know. Things might get real, real bad on January 6.”
- Meadows and Giuliani both inquired about presidential pardons after January 6, Hutchinson told the committee. She previously testified that several Republican members of Congress also reached out about pardons in connection to their involvement with the insurrection.
The blog will be back tomorrow with more analysis of today’s January 6 hearing and news from the supreme court, which still has four decisions left to announce before wrapping up its term. See you then.
Democrat Jamie Raskin, a member of the January 6 committee, said the panel would continue to investigate possible witness tampering among Donald Trump’s allies.
At the end of today’s hearing, Liz Cheney, the Republican vice-chair of the committee, quoted testimony from two witnesses who said they had been told to remain loyal to Trump in their comments to investigators.
“It’s a crime to tamper with witnesses. It’s a form of obstructing justice. The committee won’t tolerate it,” Raskin told reporters after the hearing concluded.
He emphasized that the committee’s investigation is ongoing, saying, “We haven’t had the chance to fully investigate it or fully discuss it, but it’s something on our agenda.”
Jan. 6 committee member Rep. Jamie Raskin, after today's hearing, said the committee will continue to investigate possible witness tampering, after texts Rep. Cheney presented appeared to show that.
— CBS News (@CBSNews) June 28, 2022
"It's a crime to tamper with witnesses...The committee won't tolerate it." pic.twitter.com/t74KZvmEC0
The Guardian’s Lauren Gambino and Hugo Lowell have a full writeup of Cassidy Hutchinson’s shocking testimony before the January 6 committee:
In explosive public testimony, a former White House aide on Tuesday told the committee investigating the January 6 insurrection that Donald Trump knowingly directed armed supporters to march to the US Capitol in a last-gasp effort to invalidate the results of the 2020 presidential election that he lost.
Appearing at a hastily scheduled hearing on Capitol Hill, Cassidy Hutchinson, a former aide to Trump’s final chief of staff, Mark Meadows, also painted a devastating portrait of a president spiraling out of control and a White House staff often ambivalent about the violence building around them.
Hutchinson also offered extraordinary new details that the White House – and the former US president – were aware that the rally on January 6 could turn violent days before Trump stepped on stage at a rally on the Ellipse and urged his supporters to “fight like hell” to keep him in power.
“I felt like I was watching a bad car accident about to happen, where you cannot stop it,” Hutchinson, a conservative Republican who worked just steps from the Oval Office, testified at the panel’s sixth and most revealing hearing to date.
Over the course of two hours, Hutchinson offered a shocking view into the West Wing in the moments before, during and after the siege of the US Capitol.
Read the Guardian’s full report on the history-making hearing:
Fox News host Bret Baier acknowledged that Cassidy Hutchinson’s detailed testimony about Donald Trump’s actions on January 6 could have far-reaching consequences.
While noting that he wished that some of Trump’s congressional allies were serving on the January 6 committee, Baier said of today’s hearing, “The testimony in and of itself is really, really powerful.”
Baier’s words were met with a long pause from his colleagues, prompting fellow host John Roberts to ask co-anchor Sandra Smith, “Can you still hear?”
This post-hearing moment of awkward silence on Fox kinda says a lot. pic.twitter.com/5yRNJ0btKd
— Brian Stelter (@brianstelter) June 28, 2022
Update, 30 June 2022: Fox News has since said the pause was the result of a missed cue between anchors in separate studios in New York and DC.
Updated
Liz Cheney, the Republican vice-chair of the January 6 committee, indicated that the panel may return to the issue of potential witness tampering in future hearings.
Cheney concluded her remarks at today’s hearing by reading aloud from the testimony of two witnesses who said they were advised to remain loyal to Donald Trump when speaking to investigators.
.@RepLizCheney (R-WY): "I think most Americans know that attempting to influence witnesses to testify untruthfully presents very serious concerns." pic.twitter.com/xlsUwnAGPr
— CSPAN (@cspan) June 28, 2022
“I think most Americans know that attempting to influence witnesses to testify untruthfully presents very serious concerns,” Cheney said. “We will be discussing these issues as a committee, carefully considering our next steps.”
As of now, the January 6 committee is expected to resume its hearings when the House returns from its recess on 12 July.
The committee’s evidence of potential witness tampering could also be used by the department of justice if federal prosecutors choose to pursue charges in connection to the allegations.
Some members of Congress reacted with outrage as they listened to Cassidy Hutchinson recount how Donald Trump was informed that some of his supporters at his January 6 rally were carrying weapons.
According to Hutchinson, Trump responded to that information by saying, “I don’t f’ing care that they have weapons. They’re not here to hurt me.”
The rally that Trump spoke at on January 6 culminated in the Capitol insurrection, which resulted in several deaths and many serious injuries for US Capitol Police officers.
“It was a set up. They set up the Capitol Police and Congress to to get overrun,” congressman Ruben Gallego, a Democrat of Arizona, said on Twitter. He went on to insult Mark Meadows, Trump’s chief of staff and Hutchinson’s boss, as a “traitorous fuck”.
It was a set up. They set up the Capitol Police and Congress to to get overrun. @MarkMeadows you traitorous fuck.
— Ruben Gallego (@RubenGallego) June 28, 2022
Some of Cassidy Hutchinson’s former White House colleagues have applauded her willingness to testify publicly before the January 6 committee.
They have also pushed back against suggestions from Donald Trump and some of his allies that Hutchinson, who served as a senior adviser to the White House chief of staff, was an unimportant staffer in the administration.
“Anyone downplaying Cassidy Hutchinson’s role or her access in the West Wing either doesn’t understand how the Trump WH worked or is attempting to discredit her because they’re scared of how damning this testimony is,” said Sarah Matthews, who served as deputy White House press secretary in the Trump administration.
Matthews added, “For those complaining of ‘hearsay,’ I imagine the Jan. 6 committee would welcome any of those involved to deny these allegations under oath.”
Anyone downplaying Cassidy Hutchinson’s role or her access in the West Wing either doesn’t understand how the Trump WH worked or is attempting to discredit her because they’re scared of how damning this testimony is.
— Sarah Matthews (@SarahAMatthews1) June 28, 2022
Trump’s former White House communications director, Alyssa Farah Griffin, echoed that suggestion, while applauding Hutchinson’s “courage [and] integrity”.
“Cassidy Hutchinson is my friend. I knew her testimony would be damning. I had no idea it’d be THIS damning,” Griffin said on Twitter.
“To anyone who would try to impugn her character, I’d be glad to put you in touch w/@January6thCmte to appear UNDER OATH.”
Cassidy Hutchinson is my friend. I knew her testimony would be damning. I had no idea it’d be THIS damning.
— Alyssa Farah Griffin 🇺🇸 (@Alyssafarah) June 28, 2022
I am so grateful for her courage & integrity.
To anyone who would try to impugn her character, I’d be glad to put you in touch w/ @January6thCmte to appear UNDER OATH.
Mick Mulvaney, who previously served as Donald Trump’s acting chief of staff, said Liz Cheney’s closing remarks at today’s hearing indicate the January 6 committee has evidence of witness tampering.
Cheney's closing is stunning: they think they have evidence of witness tampering and obstruction of justice.
— Mick Mulvaney (@MickMulvaney) June 28, 2022
There is an old maxim: it's never the crime, it's always the coverup.
Things went very badly for the former President today. My guess is that it will get worse from here
“Cheney’s closing is stunning: they think they have evidence of witness tampering and obstruction of justice. There is an old maxim: it’s never the crime, it’s always the coverup,” Mulvaney said on Twitter.
“Things went very badly for the former President today. My guess is that it will get worse from here.”
The committee is currently set to resume its hearings next month, after the House returns from its recess on 12 July.
Cheney hints at possible witness intimidation in January 6 investigation
Liz Cheney, the Republican vice-chair of the January 6 committee, applauded Cassidy Hutchinson’s willingness to testify about what she witnessed in the Trump White House, but she also criticized Hutchinson’s colleagues who have refused to do so.
“While our committee has seen many witnesses, including many Republicans, testify fully and forthrightly, this has not been true of every witness,” Cheney said at the end of today’s hearing.
She added, “We have received evidence of one particular practice that raises significant concern.”
Cheney noted that the committee regularly asks witnesses whether they have been contacted by any of their former colleagues or anyone else who may attempt to influence their testimony.
We commonly ask witnesses connected to Trump whether they have been contacted by anyone attempting to impact testimony.
— January 6th Committee (@January6thCmte) June 28, 2022
Below are examples of answers we have received to this question. pic.twitter.com/pwxyJBf7Kl
Cheney read aloud from the testimony of two witnesses who said they had recently spoken to people who encouraged them to stay in Donald Trump’s good graces with their comments to the committee.
One witness told investigators, “What they said to me is, as long as I continue to be a team player, they know that I’m on the right team. I’m doing the right thing, I’m protecting who I need to protect. ... They have reminded me a couple of times that Trump does read transcripts and just to keep that in mind as I proceed through my depositions and interviews with the committee.”
Cheney’s comments point to the possibility of witness intimidation impacting the investigation, although it will ultimately be up to the justice department to determine what (if any) criminal charges stem from the committee’s findings.
Updated
The January 6 committee hearing, which featured explosive testimony from former Trump White House aide Cassidy Hutchinson, has now concluded after nearly two hours.
In her closing statement, Liz Cheney, the Republican vice-chair of the committee, thanked Hutchinson for her courage in speaking out about Donald Trump’s actions on the day of the Capitol insurrection.
“Our nation is preserved by those who abide by their oaths to our Constitution. Our nation is preserved by those who know the fundamental difference between right and wrong,” Cheney said.
“I want all Americans to know that what Miss Hutchinson has done today is not easy. The easy course is to hide from the spotlight, to refuse to come forward, to attempt to downplay or deny what happened.”
Giuliani and Meadows sought presidential pardons after January 6, Hutchinson says
Cassidy Hutchinson said that both Mark Meadows, the White House chief of staff, and Rudy Giuliani, one of Donald Trump’s campaign lawyers, sought presidential pardons after January 6.
Hutchinson previously testified to investigators that several Republican members of Congress also reached out to inquire about potential pardons in connection to their involvement in the Capitol attack.
According to Hutchinson, Trump even wanted to add a line to his January 7 speech about potential pardons for the Capitol insurrectionists, but he ultimately did not do so.
Cassidy Hutchinson said she was horrified by Donald Trump’s tweet pressuring Mike Pence to disrupt the congressional certification of Joe Biden’s victory in the 2020 election.
At 2.24pm on January 6, as insurrectionists stormed the Capitol, Trump tweeted, “Mike Pence didn’t have the courage to do what should have been done to protect our Country and our Constitution.”
Asked for her response to that tweet, Hutchinson said, “As an American, I was disgusted. It was unpatriotic. It was un-American. We were watching the Capitol building get defaced over a lie.”
Meadows said Trump endorsed 'Hang Mike Pence!' chants, Hutchinson testifies
Cassidy Hutchinson witnessed a conversation between Mark Meadows, the White House chief of staff, and Pat Cipollone, the White House counsel, about the insurrectionists’ chants of “Hang Mike Pence!”
The committee has previously demonstrated how those who attacked the Capitol threatened Pence, as the vice-president oversaw the certification of Joe Biden’s victory in the 2020 election. Donald Trump himself repeatedly pressured Pence to disrupt the certification process.
According to Hutchinson, Cipollone said something to Meadows along the lines of, “Mark, we need to do something more. They’re literally calling for the vice-president to be f-ing hung.”
Referring to Trump, Meadows replied, “You heard him, Pat. He thinks Mike deserves it. He doesn’t think they are doing anything wrong.”
After a brief break, the January 6 committee hearing has resumed, and the panel shared a clip from Michael Flynn’s testimony with investigators.
Flynn, Donald Trump’s former national security adviser and a close ally, repeatedly invoked his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination to avoid answering the committee’s questions about the January 6 insurrection.
Among other things, Flynn would not answer a question from Liz Cheney, the committee’s Republican vice-chair, about whether he believes in the peaceful transfer of power.
Cassidy Hutchinson testified that Donald Trump was outraged with former attorney general William Barr for refusing to go along with the president’s lies about widespread fraud in the 2020 election.
In December 2020, Barr told the AP in an interview, “To date, we have not seen fraud on a scale that could have effected a different outcome in the election.”
Trump was so enraged by Barr’s comments that he threw a plate at a wall in the White House, Hutchinson said. She walked in to the room where Trump had eaten lunch that day to see a porcelain plate shattered on the floor and ketchup smeared on the wall.
When asked whether this was a common occurrence for Trump, Hutchinson said, “There were several times throughout my tenure with the chief of staff that I was aware of him either throwing dishes or flipping the tablecloth.”
Trump tried to grab car's steering wheel to go to Capitol
Donald Trump wanted to go to the Capitol with his supporters on January 6, and he reacted with rage when aides told him he could not do so, Cassidy Hutchinson testified.
Hutchinson said Tony Ornato, the White House deputy chief of staff, told her that Trump was “irate” when he was informed he would be returning to the West Wing instead of going to the Capitol.
According to Hutchinson’s testimony, Trump told a Secret Service agent, “I’m the effing president, take me up to the Capitol now.”
The agent responded that he could not take Trump to the Capitol, prompting the president to try to grab hold of the steering wheel of his limousine, known as “the Beast”.
When that failed, Trump lunged for the agent’s throat, Hutchinson said. That same agent listened to Ornato as he recounted the story to Hutchinson.
Updated
McCarthy said Trump should not travel to Capitol on January 6
Cassidy Hutchinson spoke to House Republican leader Kevin McCarthy shortly after Donald Trump indicated in his January 6 speech at the Ellipse that he may go up to the Capitol, as lawmakers prepared to certify Joe Biden’s victory.
Hutchinson said McCarthy expressed severe concern about the possibility of Trump traveling to the Capitol, and he urged against the then-president doing so.
According to Hutchinson, McCarthy instructed her, “Don’t come up here.”
Updated
The January 6 committee shared testimony from several White House staffers indicating that Donald Trump did actually want to go up to the Capitol on the day of the insurrection.
Trump’s White House counsel, Pat Cipollone, warned Cassidy Hutchinson that she should absolutely not let the president go up to the Capitol, out of fear of potential criminal liability for him.
According to Hutchinson, Cipollone said something along the lines of, “We’re going to get charged with every crime imaginable if we let that happen.”
Updated
'They're not here to hurt me,' Trump said when warned of supporters carrying weapons
Donald Trump was warned that some of his supporters attending the January 6 rally at the Ellipse were carrying weapons and were having a hard time getting through the magnetometers set up by Secret Service, Cassidy Hutchinson told the January 6 committee.
Hutchinson texted one of her colleagues on January 6 that Trump was “fucking furious” about the crowd size at his rally and wanted the Secret Service to remove the magnetometers to allow more people in.
Hutchinson said, “I was in the vicinity of a conversation where I overheard the president say something to the effect of, ‘I don’t f’ing care that they have weapons. 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 the f’ing people in. Take the mags way.’” [The reference was to magnetometers – used by security screening systems in detecting metal objects.]
Some of the attendees of Trump’s rally ultimately went on to storm the Capitol, resulting in several deaths.
Updated
Cassidy Hutchinson testified that Mark Meadows, Donald Trump’s White House chief of staff, was warned at around 10am on January 6 that attendees of the rally at the Ellipse were carrying weapons.
According to Hutchinson, Tony Ornato, who was then the White House deputy chief of staff, came to Meadows’ office and was listing off some of the weapons carried by Trump’s supporters, including knives, guns, bear spray, body armor and spears.
Hutchinson said that Meadows did not react to Ornato’s warning and did not even bother to look up from his phone during the conversation.
“Anything else?” Meadows asked Ornato.
When Ornato asked Meadows if he had any additional questions, Meadows checked to see if Trump had been warned that rally attendees were carrying weapons. Ornato said that yes, Trump had been told about it.
Meadows warned 'things might get real, real bad on January 6'
Cassidy Hutchinson testified about conversations she had with her boss, White House chief of staff Mark Meadows, and Rudy Giuliani, one of Donald Trump’s campaign lawyers, in the days leading up to the insurrection.
Giuliani was at the White House on January 2, 2021. As he left the building, he asked Hutchinson whether she was “excited” for January 6.
When she asked Giuliani what was going to happen on January 6, the day that Congress was scheduled to certify Joe Biden’s victory in the 2020 election, Rudy said Trump supporters were “going to the Capitol”.
Hutchinson then asked Meadows about Giuliani’s comments. According to Hutchinson, Meadows told her, “There’s a lot going on, Cass, but I don’t know. Things might get real, real bad on January 6.”
Hutchinson said that conversation marked the “first moment I remember feeling scared and nervous for what could happen on January 6”.
Liz Cheney, the Republican vice-chairwoman of the January 6 committee, made a point to emphasize Cassidy Hutchinson’s Republican bona fides.
In addition to her work for Mark Meadows when he was Donald Trump’s chief of staff, Hutchinson also served in the White House office of legislative affairs and was an aide to House Republican whip Steve Scalise.
As a senior adviser to Meadows, Hutchinson worked just steps from the Oval Office and had frequent contact with the president and his closest aides.
Thompson says Americans need to hear Hutchinson's testimony 'immediately'
Bennie Thompson, the chairman of the January 6 committee, acknowledged that today’s hearing was unexpected, as the panel had initially planned to wait to reconvene until July.
But Thompson said the testimony from Cassidy Hutchinson about the events within the White House as the insurrection unfolded was too important to wait because Americans needed to hear from her “immediately”.
Thompson also applauded Hutchinson’s “courage” in coming forward and cooperating with the committee, when so many of her former colleagues -- including her longtime boss Mark Meadows, who served as Donald Trump’s chief of staff -- have refused to do so.
“It hasn’t always been easy to get that information because the same people who drove the former president’s pressure campaign to overturn the election are now trying to cover up the truth about January 6,” Thompson said.
“But thanks to the courage of certain individuals, the truth won’t be buried. The American people won’t be left in the dark.”
January 6 hearing begins, as Hutchinson takes witness stand
Bennie Thompson, the Democratic chair of the House select committee investigating the January 6 insurrection, has now gaveled in today’s hearing.
The committee will hear from Cassidy Hutchinson, who served as a senior adviser to Donald Trump’s White House chief of staff, Mark Meadows. She is already seated at the witness table.
Hutchinson has previously testified to investigators behind closed doors, providing valuable information about the Trump White House’s reaction to the Capitol attack and Republican lawmakers’ requests for pardons after that violent day.
This will be Hutchinson’s first public testimony since the January 6 investigation began last year. Stay tuned.
Fifty migrants found dead inside abandoned Texas trailer truck
The Guardian’s Ashifa Kassam and Ramon Antonio Vargas report:
Fifty suspected migrants were found dead and at least a dozen others were hospitalized after being found inside an abandoned tractor-trailer rig on Monday on a remote back road in south-west San Antonio, officials have said.
The discovery in Texas may prove to be the deadliest tragedy among thousands of people who have died attempting to cross the US border from Mexico in recent decades.
A person who works at a building nearby was alerted by a cry for help shortly before 6pm on Monday, police chief William McManus said. Officers arrived to find a body on the ground outside the trailer and a partially opened gate to the trailer, he said.
Initially, authorities said 46 of those inside the trailer were dead. But Mexico’s foreign minister, Marcelo Ebrard, said on Tuesday that 50 people were dead, including at least 22 from Mexico, seven from Guatemala, and two from Honduras.
At least 19 others who died has not been identified, Ebrard said. He added: “We’re in mourning. A huge tragedy. Mexico will join investigations in the US,” which are being coordinated by the US Department of Homeland Security.
Read the Guardian’s full report:
Updated
Today so far
Here’s where the day stands so far:
- Cassidy Hutchinson is expected to testify at the January 6 committee’s hearing this afternoon, which will start in about an hour. Hutchinson served as a senior adviser to Donald Trump’s White House chief of staff, Mark Meadows, and she has provided some of the most damning evidence gathered by the select committee investigating the Capitol attack. At the last hearing, the committee played a clip of Hutchinson’s private testimony, in which she alleged that multiple Republican members of Congress requested presidential pardons after the insurrection.
- Hutchinson’s testimony may include more details about Trump’s response to insurrectionists’ chants of “Hang Mike Pence!” Hutchinson reportedly told the committee that Trump reacted approvingly when informed of the chants, and her testimony could shed new light on how the former president handled the escalating violence at the Capitol.
- Joe Biden will meet tomorrow with Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, the president of Turkey, as the two leaders attend the Nato summit in Madrid, Spain. The exact format and timing of the meeting is still unclear, but Jake Sullivan, Biden’s national security adviser, told reporters that the focus of the discussion would be on US-Turkish relations and the bids from Finland and Sweden to join Nato, which Erdoğan has opposed.
The blog will have more coming up, so stay tuned.
Norm Eisen, a senior Brookings fellow who served as House Democrats’ counsel during Donald Trump’s first impeachment trial, argued that Cassidy Hutchinson could become the John Dean of the January 6 hearings.
Dean served as White House counsel for Richard Nixon, and he famously testified to Congress about the then-president’s involvement in the Watergate scandal.
“As I said when the hearings started (seems so long ago) Cassidy Hutchinson might be the next John Dean,” Eisen said on Twitter. “True, she’s much more junior. But boy—she sure saw a lot. Today we will find out if I was right.”
As I said when the hearings started (seems so long ago) Cassidy Hutchinson might be the next John Dean. True, she’s much more junior. But boy—she sure saw a lot. Today we will find out if I was right. https://t.co/LvVUTvUMXG
— Norm Eisen (@NormEisen) June 28, 2022
It’s worth noting that Cassidy Hutchinson recently changed her legal representation in connection to the January 6 investigation.
Hutchinson’s decision to replace her former lawyer, Stefan Passantino, with Jody Hunt of the law firm Alston Bird was interpreted as a signal of her increased willingness to cooperate with the January 6 committee’s requests for information.
Politico reported earlier this month:
Hutchinson’s former attorney, Stefan Passantino, has deep Trump World connections. Her new lawyer, Jody Hunt, is a longtime close ally of Jeff Sessions and served as his chief of staff when the former attorney general enraged Trump by recusing from the Russia probe. ...
Passantino, Hutchinson’s former attorney, was the Trump White House’s chief ethics lawyer. And Passantino’s firm, Michael Best, has Trump World connections; its president is former White House chief of staff Reince Priebus, and Justin Clark — also a top Trump World lawyer — is currently on leave from the firm, according to its website.
Today’s testimony from Cassidy Hutchinson could also reveal more details about Donald Trump’s response to insurrectionists’ chants of “Hang Mike Pence!” on January 6.
At the January 6 committee’s first public hearing earlier this month, Liz Cheney, the Republican vice-chair of the panel, said witness testimony indicated Trump was informed of the chants and reacted approvingly to them.
“You will hear that President Trump was yelling and ‘really angry’ at advisers who told him he needed to be doing something more,” Cheney said at the first hearing.
“And aware of the rioters’ chants to hang Mike Pence, the president responded with this sentiment, ‘Maybe our supporters have the right idea.’ Mike Pence ‘deserves it.’”
According to CNN, Hutchinson was the witness who provided the committee with that information, so today’s hearing could give her an opportunity to offer valuable new insight into how Trump reacted as January 6 turned violent.
Hutchinson to testify at today's January 6 hearing, source confirms
The House committee investigating the January 6 insurrection is expected to hear live public testimony on Tuesday from Cassidy Hutchinson, a former top aide to Mark Meadows, the last chief of staff to Donald Trump, according to a source familiar with the matter.
The committee on Monday abruptly scheduled a hearing for Tuesday, suggesting a sense of urgency to disclose what it said was “recently obtained evidence”. The committee had previously said it would not hold any more hearings until next month.
It is the sixth public hearing held by the committee after a year-long investigation into the Capitol attack. Two more hearings are expected next month.
The hearings next month are expected to delve into the role of far-right and paramilitary groups organized and prepared for the January 6 attack and Trump’s abdication of leadership during the hours-long siege of the Capitol.
Updated
Biden to meet with Erdogan tomorrow
Joe Biden will meet tomorrow with Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, the president of Turkey, as the two leaders attend the Nato summit in Madrid, Spain.
The White House announced the planned meeting during the daily press briefing, which was held today aboard Air Force One as Biden flew from Germany, where he attended the G7 summit, to Spain.
Biden has just arrived in Madrid, where he will soon meet with the Spanish prime minister, Pedro Sánchez, and King Felipe VI.
The exact format and timing of the Erdoğan meeting is still unclear, but Jake Sullivan, Biden’s national security adviser, told reporters that the focus of the discussion would be on US-Turkish relations and the bids from Finland and Sweden to join Nato.
Turkey has raised objections to Finland and Sweden’s bids, which were submitted in response to the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Erdoğan has specifically accused Sweden of being a “hatchery” for terrorist organizations, per Reuters.
The meeting tomorrow could give Biden an opportunity to press Erdoğan on those reservations and attempt to convince him to support Nato membership for Finland and Sweden.
It remains unclear what new information Cassidy Hutchinson, former senior aide to Trump White House chief of staff Mark Meadows, might provide in her testimony today before the January 6 committee.
But according to Brendan Buck, a longtime adviser to former Republican House speaker Paul Ryan, Hutchinson joined every meeting that Meadows participated in on Capitol Hill.
“I don’t know Cassidy Hutchinson, and I can’t speak to how things worked at the White House, but when Meadows was on the Hill he always insisted that she be in *every* meeting he had, no matter how small,” Buck said on Twitter. “It was odd then, and [doesn’t] seem to be working out for him now.”
I don’t know Cassidy Hutchinson, and I can’t speak to how things worked at the White House, but when Meadows was on the Hill he always insisted that she be in *every* meeting he had, no matter how small. It was odd then, and doesnt seem to be working out for him now.
— Brendan Buck (@BrendanBuck) June 28, 2022
Updated
The House select committee investigating the January 6 Capitol attack is closely focused on phone calls and conversations among Donald Trump’s children and top aides captured by a documentary film-maker weeks before the 2020 election, say sources familiar with the matter.
The calls among Trump’s children and top aides took place at an invitation-only event at the Trump International hotel in Washington that took place the night of the first presidential debate on 29 September 2020, the sources said.
The select committee is interested in the calls, the sources said, since the footage is understood to show the former president’s children, including Donald Jr and Eric Trump, privately discussing strategies about the election at a crucial time in the presidential campaign.
House investigators first learned about the event, hosted by the Trump campaign, and the existence of the footage through British film-maker Alex Holder, who testified about what he and his crew recorded during a two-hour interview last week, the sources said.
Read the Guardian’s full report:
Former Meadows aide reportedly set to testify at January 6 hearing
Greetings from Washington, live blog readers.
The House select committee investigating the January 6 insurrection will hold its sixth public hearing of the month at 1pm ET, after the panel surprisingly announced the event yesterday.
According to multiple reports, the star witness for today’s surprise hearing will be Cassidy Hutchinson, a former aide to Mark Meadows, who served as Donald Trump’s White House chief of staff. (Punchbowl News first reported Hutchinson’s expected appearance.)
Hutchinson has already spoken to investigators behind closed doors, and she provided the committee with some of its most damning evidence about the Trump White House’s ties to the attack on the Capitol.
In a clip of her private testimony played at a hearing last week, Hutchinson named several Republican members of Congress who sought president pardons in connection to their involvement in the insurrection.
Today could give Hutchinson her first opportunity to speak directly to the American people about what she witnessed in the White House on January 6 and in the aftermath of that violent day.
The hearing will kick off in a few hours, and the blog will have updates and analysis once it starts. Stay tuned.
And here’s what else is happening today:
- Joe Biden is traveling from Germany to Spain. Biden is participating in the final day of the G7 summit in Schloss Elmau, Germany, before traveling on to Madrid, Spain, for the start of the Nato summit.
- Karine Jean-Pierre will gaggle with reporters aboard Air Force One en route to Madrid. The White House press secretary will be joined by Jake Sullivan, Biden’s national security adviser.
- Today marks the 10th anniversary of the supreme court’s decision to uphold key portions of the Affordable Care Act. The anniversary comes as the country awaits the court’s final four decisions of the term, which has already seen conservative justices overturn Roe v Wade and deliver a major victory to gun rights groups.
The blog will have more coming up, so stick around.
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