Two former officials in the Trump White House are casting doubt on the trustworthiness of Tony Ornato, the Secret Service official who this week denied that then-President Donald Trump physically lunged at an agent or attempted to grab the steering wheel of the presidential vehicle during a confrontation that occurred on January 6.
Mr Ornato, currently the assistant director of the Secret Service’s Office of Training, vaulted into political relevance this week after a former aide to ex-White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows testified to the Jan 6 committee that she had been told by the agent on the day of the attack on Congress about the confrontation. It apparently erupted in an SUV transporting Mr Trump after the president grew enraged at his agents’ refusal to take him to the US Capitol, where thousands of his supporters would soon riot and storm the building.
