Cassidy Hutchinson, Aide To Mark Meadows, Says Trump Knew Jan. 6 Rioters Had Weapons, Wanted Less Security

A former senior aide to Donald Trump’s chief of staff, Mark Meadows, has shared new observations of the former President’s conduct before and during the January 6 Capitol riots, which have been the focus of a House Select Committee gathering evidence.

Cassidy Hutchinson made an appearance in person at the House Committee’s sixth public hearing regarding the rally that turned into a violent riot. She also has sat with the committee in private meetings to clarify things she observed during her tenure in the Trump administration.

Her observations included hearing that Trump wanted staff to let demonstrators who had guns into their rally, that he threw his lunch in response to William Barr sayin no election fraud had been detected in an interview, and that he accosted a Secret Service officer in an attempt to get him to drive him to the riots at the Capitol.

They played some clips of prior taped depositions by Hutchinson along with asking her live questions. In one pre-recorded segment, Hutchinson said Trump was concerned with crowd size and was “angry that we weren’t letting people through the mags with weapons.” She also later said that she overheard Trump say “I don’t f––king care that they have weapons. They’re not here to hurt me. Take the f––king mags away. Let my people in, they can march the Capitol from here.”

Trump used part of his speech at this rally to urge participants to march on the Capitol. He was warned multiple times by his aides that appearing at the Capitol while the votes were being counted could constitute a crime. Despite this, Trump tried on multiple times to go to the Capitol, and even attempted to attack a Secret Service agent who was driving him.

Hutchinson said that a staffer who observed the incident later told her that Trump had entered a transport vehicle but was “irate” when told he couldn’t go to the Capitol and said, “I’m the f––king President, take me up to the Capitol now.” When the agent refused, Hutchinson said Trump attempted to grab the steering wheel from the back seat, and “used his free hand to lunge towards Bobby Engle,” when he was rebuffed.

The aide added that Trump appeared to be aiming for the agent’s clavicles. Even though another staffer told her about this, Hutchinson said Secret Service agent Bobby Engle was in the room as she was told the story and he did not dispute any details about it.