Former Trump White House attorney Eric Herschmann claims that during a meeting at the White House that afternoon he wrote a handwritten note about a possible statement by then-President Donald Trump during the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol. and not by White House aide Cassidy Hutchinson, sources familiar with the matter told ABC News.
At the committee’s hearing on Tuesday, Jan. 6, MP Liz Cheney showed a handwritten note Hutchinson said she wrote after Trump’s chief of staff, Mark Meadows, handed her a notebook and a pen. to take his dictation.
Sources familiar with the matter said Herschmann had previously told the committee he had written the note.
“The handwritten note that Cassidy Hutchinson testified was written by her, in fact, it was written by Eric Herschmann on January 6, 2021,” a Herschmann spokesman told ABC News on Tuesday evening.
“All sources with direct knowledge and law enforcement have confirmed and will confirm that it was written by Mr Herschmann,” the spokesman said.
At Tuesday’s hearing, Hutchinson, testifying about the note, said, “This is a note I wrote under the direction of the chief of staff on Jan. 6, probably around 3 p.m.”
“And it’s written on the chief of staff’s card, but is that your letter, Mrs. Hutchinson?” Asked Rep. Cheney.
Cassidy Hutchinson, who was an aide to former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows during the administration of former President Donald Trump, goes so far as to testify during a public hearing of the House select committee to investigate the attack. January 6 at the Capitol, at the Capitol. , June 28, 2022.
Evelyn Hockstein / Reuters
“That’s my letter,” Hutchinson replied.
Hutchinson, a former Meadows chief aide, said Meadows handed him the notebook and a pen and began issuing a potential statement for Trump to release him amid the Capitol riot.
Hutchinson also said Herschmann had suggested changing the statement and “putting ‘without legal authority'”.
In response to Herschmann’s statement, a committee spokesman on Jan. 6 said, “The committee has done its due diligence on this and has considered Ms. Hutchinson’s account of the matter credible. Although we understand that she and Mr. Herschmann may have different memories of Who wrote the note, what is ultimately important is that both White House officials believed the president should have immediately instructed his supporters to leave the Capitol buildings “.
“The note reminded me of that,” the committee spokesman said. “But Mr. Trump didn’t take that action at the time.”
The Jan. 6 committee has repeatedly relied on Herschmann’s candid and sometimes vulgar testimony throughout the June hearings, including when the former White House attorney testified that he overturned the plan. former Trump Justice Department official Jeffrey Clark to cancel the 2020 election.
Herschmann, a former Trump White House attorney, also defended former President Trump during Trump’s first impeachment trial and worked on the west wing as a senior adviser.
A Hutchinson attorney did not respond to a request for comment from ABC News, nor did Meadows.