The Justice Department has reportedly assigned its civil rights division to investigate former White House aide Cassidy Hutchinson regarding testimony she gave before the Jan. 6 committee in 2022 against President Donald Trump.
The New York Times reported that Harmeet Dhillon, head of the civil rights division, has been assigned to look into the matter, according to three unnamed sources. Hutchinson served as an assistant to then-White House chief of staff Mark Meadows.
“The investigation into Ms. Hutchinson began some weeks ago after the Justice Department received a referral from a Trump ally in Congress who accused Ms. Hutchinson of lying to the special House committee that investigated the events of Jan. 6,” the Times said. The committee was established by then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.
“During explosive televised testimony in June 2022, Ms. Hutchinson, now 29, said that Mr. Trump had encouraged the crowd that gathered to hear him speak near the White House on Jan. 6 to march to the Capitol even though he knew it was armed and could turn violent,” the news outlet added.
“She also claimed that she had heard that Mr. Trump lunged at one of his Secret Service agents in a presidential limo when he was told he could not join his supporters on Capitol Hill. Other testimony later contradicted that assertion,” according to the Times.
A witness testifies that Trump put his hands on a Secret Service agent and tried to grab the steering wheel of the presidential limo so he can go to the Capitol on 1/6. pic.twitter.com/TByhq5d5s3
— The Post Millennial (@TPostMillennial) June 28, 2022
Trump responded to her testimony with a social media post at the time, writing, “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 have even been possible to do such a ridiculous thing.”
The Secret Service driver refuted her claim in testimony before the Jan. 6 committee, saying that he “did not see him reach [redacted]. [President Trump] never grabbed the steering wheel. I didn’t see him, you know, lunge to try to get into the front seat at all.”
Trump also posted, “Her story of me throwing food is also false … and why would SHE have to clean it up, I hardly knew who she was.”
Here is Trump’s response to those claims: pic.twitter.com/qsTnnbl2rZ
— The Post Millennial (@TPostMillennial) June 28, 2022
In a back-and-forth with then-Rep. Liz Cheney of Wyoming, vice chairwoman of the Jan. 6 committee, Hutchinson testified, “There were several times throughout my tenure with the chief of staff where I was aware of either him throwing dishes or flipping the tablecloth to let all the contents of the table go onto the floor.”
In October 2024, Republican Rep. Barry Loudermilk, chairman of the Committee on House Administration’s Subcommittee on Oversight, made public 2022 text messages between Cheney and Hutchinson, without the knowledge of her attorney.
“In the months prior to Hutchinson’s explosive private and public testimony, Cheney communicated with Hutchinson, both directly and through an intermediary — Alyssa Farah Griffin — [a former Trump aide, now a co-host on “The View”] while Hutchinson was represented by her attorney, Stefan Passantino. The Select Committee conducted six transcribed interviews of Hutchinson in total. Passantino represented Hutchinson for the first three interviews,” the House Administration subcommittee news release said.
After her third testimony before the committee, Hutchinson reached out to Cheney via the encrypted text app Signal and began communicating with her without her attorney’s knowledge.
🚨BREAKING: J6 Committee Vice Chairwoman Liz Cheney was communicating with witness Cassidy Hutchinson on the encrypted app Signal about her testimony without the knowledge of Hutchinson’s Attorney pic.twitter.com/XdhqrC72zC
— Benny Johnson (@bennyjohnson) October 15, 2024
The news release further indicated, “Days after Cheney began communicating directly with Hutchinson, Hutchinson fired Passantino and hired Cheney’s recommended attorneys, who agreed to represent Hutchinson pro bono,” i.e., free of charge.
With her new legal counsel, Hutchinson testified three more times before the Jan. 6 committee.
Loudermilk alleged, “Cheney’s influence on Hutchinson is apparent from that point forward by her dramatic change in testimony and eventual claims against President Trump using second- and third-hand accounts,” including the supposed Trump-lunging-in-the-limousine incident.
Loudermilk issued a report in December 2024 that contradicted claims made by Hutchinson before the Jan. 6 committee, concluding Trump did not attack the Secret Service, nor did he have intelligence indicating there would be violence at the Capitol on the morning of Jan. 6.
Further, the subcommittee found that Hutchinson falsely claimed to have drafted a handwritten note for Trump, at the direction of Meadows, relating to the events happening at the Capitol, “when the note clearly was not written by her,” according to a handwriting expert.
The purpose of presenting it to the Jan. 6 committee was to bolster its narrative that Trump was apathetic about the unfolding chaotic scene at the Capitol.
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