WASHINGTON – Shortly after his speech on the Ellipse ended on January 6, 2021, President Donald J. Trump entered the back of a black suburb that bore the presidential stamp.
What happened next has become a topic of intense debate following the explosive testimony Tuesday of Cassidy Hutchinson, a former White House aide who said Mr. Trump was furious when his security detail went away. refuse to take him to the Capitol.
In statements to the committee of the House investigating the attack, Ms. Hutchinson said Anthony M. Ornato, an assistant to the White House chief of staff, had told him that Mr. Trump tried to grab the steering wheel of his vehicle when he was told he couldn’t. go to the Capitol to join his supporters. Mrs. Hutchinson also said that Mr. Ornato told him the president “threw himself” against his top Secret Service agent, Robert Engel.
Mrs. Hutchinson made it clear in her public testimony that she had no direct knowledge of the incident, but that Mr. Ornato told him with Mr. Engel present in the room. It is still unclear what the committee did, at least, to corroborate this.
Secret Service officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, disputed his account.
But officials said Mr. Engel, Mr. Ornato and the driver of the Suburban are ready to confirm to the committee another conviction condemning the testimony of Ms. Hutchinson: That Mr. Trump demanded that his agents take him to the Capitol so he could join. his supporters, even after they emphasized the dangerous scene that was being played out there.
The willingness of officers to provide potentially critical details about the person they were protecting marks a strange turn for an agency that has historically prioritized presidents ’secrecy, even in the face of investigations.
On Wednesday, Jody Hunt, a lawyer for Ms. Hutchinson said his client “stands by all the testimony he offered yesterday, under oath” and challenged others who know of Mr. Hutchinson’s actions. Trump during the trip to appear on the committee. .
“Those who are aware of the episode should also testify under oath,” he said.
In an interview with NBC’s Chuck Todd, Florida Rep. Stephanie Murphy, a Florida Democrat, said Mr. Ornato “did not have as clear memories of that period of time as I would say Mrs. Hutchinson had.”
When asked if the panel had evidence to corroborate Ms. Hutchinson, Rep. Jamie Raskin, a Maryland Democrat and committee member, said Tuesday that Ms. Hutchinson was in himself “the evidence” he knew. “I’m not aware of anything that contradicts the story you just gave,” he said.
Anthony Guglielmi, a spokesman for the Secret Service, said the committee did not contact the agency about Hutchinson’s account of Mr. Trump from the Ellipse to the White House before his testimony.
Mr. Ornato, who was the head of detail for Mr. Secret Service. Trump before being appointed chief of staff, and Mr. Engel testified before the committee prior to Ms. Hutchinson, but they are willing to do it again, a Secret Service. said official.
Trump’s allies are using the dispute over what happened in the presidential vehicle to question the credibility of Ms. Hutchinson as a whole, who painted the portrait of a president who ignored threats of violence from his own supporters, sympathizing with those. that he wanted to “hang” the vice president and wanted to join the crowd that attacked the Capitol.
The dispute also highlights the relationship of Mr. Trump with his Secret Service detail, which was different from most previous presidents. Officers were considered to support and admire Mr. more. Trump not under any other modern president, according to people who have spent time in the White House for several administrations, and Mr. Trump worked to retain them.
Key revelations from the January 6 hearings
While other presidents came to favor the head of their detail and sometimes made sure they were promoted within the service, even occasionally appointing them as director of the agency, Mr. Trump tried to get his main agent to be part of his personal political team. In appointing Mr. Deputy Ornato to the Chief of Staff of the White House, Mr. Trump raised his eyebrows among the traditionalists who considered him inappropriate.
For generations, agents generally tried to maintain studious neutrality under Republican and Democratic presidents, determined to be seen as protectors of office regardless of who held it. Agents were known to like certain presidents more than others — George HW Bush was often described as the favorite, while many are said to dislike Bill Clinton and especially Hillary Clinton — but they always insisted that they did not form part of the political team.
The murky nexus between presidents and their protectors was broken during the Clinton years when Ken Starr, the independent attorney, summoned uniformed agents and officers to testify about the president’s relationship with Monica S. Lewinsky, the former inmate. of the White House. The Secret Service vigorously fought citations to the Supreme Court, maintaining that disclosure of what officers see and hear while protecting a president would break the bond of trust and push future executive directors to keep their guardians at bay, increasing the potential risk. But the judges rejected the argument and found no law authorizing officers to resist legal orders to testify.
This precedent paved the way for the January 6 committee to compel Mr. Trump to testify and set a precedent in case they finally return to the panel to discuss what happened to the vehicle on the day of the Capitol attack. This puts the service in an extremely awkward position, whether agents are effectively going to the political defense of a president they had physically protected or providing information that could be detrimental to them.
Peter Baker contributed to the report.