A federal grand jury in Washington, D.C., rejected a request by the Department of Justice to indict former White House aide Cassidy Hutchinson in connection with her congressional testimony about President Donald Trump's conduct during the Jan. 6, 2021, mob attack on the U.S. Capitol, The Washington Post reported Tuesday.
MS NOW confirmed the report and said prosecutors in the DOJ's Civil Rights Division sought to charge Hutchinson with a crime based on claims she made false statements, citing two people with knowledge of the case.
Senior DOJ lawyer Neville Hadley told Magistrate Judge Zia Faruqui in open court on Tuesday afternoon that the grand jury had rejected the requested indictment without naming Hutchinson as the target, according to The Post.
Hutchinson testified in June 2022 to House Select Committee that investigated the Jan. 6 Capitol riot by a mob of Trump supporters, whose attack there delayed for hours the confirmation of former President Joe Biden's electoral victory in the 2020 election.
She said that after Trump spoke at a rally outside the White House that preceded the attack, then-White House official Tony Ornato asked her, "Did you effing hear what happened in [the president's vehicle,] The Beast?"
She testified that Ornato told her that when Trump got in the car, he was under the impression from his then-Chief of Staff Mark Meadows that they going to the Capitol, as he had claimed in his speech to supporters at the rally.
When Robert Engle, the head of Trump's security detail, said the president could not go there becaue the area was not secure, Trump "had a very strong, a very angry response to that," Hutchinson testified that Ornato.
"Tony described him as being irate," Hutchinson said, noting that Trump had said something like: "I'm the effing president, take me up to the Capitol now, according to Ornato.
When Engel refused again to drive him to the Capitol, Trump "reached up towards the front of the vehicle to grab at the steering wheel. Mr. Engel grabbed his arm, said, 'Sir, you need to take your hand off the steering wheel. We're going back to the West Wing,'" Hutchinson testified.
Trump "then used his free hand to lunge toward Bobby Engel," Hutchinson said she was told by Ornato.
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