Cassidy Hutchinson was a staff assistant in the Office of Legislative Affairs before being quickly promoted to special assistant to then-President Donald Trump and Meadows’ adviser, before becoming its executive assistant until the end of the administration. of Trump.
Meadows made Hutchinson her legislative assistant, and she would accompany Meadows to Capitol Hill for her most serious meetings. Hutchinson was with Meadows “all the time,” a former White House official said, and another source said he had “very close access to Meadows.”
A former White House aide said Hutchinson had a fight with Meadows in 2021. He was supposed to go to Mar-a-Lago as a permanent staff, but that never happened.
Hutchinson’s experience of working closely with Meadows will allow the committee to learn more about Meadows ’efforts to overturn the election and find out what took place on the day the Capitol was broken. A person close to Hutchinson has told CNN that he previously testified before the committee for at least 20 hours detailing his time at key meetings in the White House as Trump and his allies tried to undo the election results.
He witnessed several key episodes through Jan. 6, in addition to witnessing some of Trump’s real-time reactions that day.
During interviews with the committee, Hutchinson testified that several Republican members of Congress, including Reps Matt Gaetz, Andy Biggs, Scott Perry and Louie Gohmert, called for preventive pardons after Jan. 6.
He also stated that Meadows was warned directly before the insurrection of possible violence. Meadows refuses to speak to the House committee.
Prior to his confirmation to speak before the committee, CNN previously reported that Hutchinson replaced his lawyer who had close ties to Trump to prepare his testimony. CNN also reported that Hutchinson has become increasingly aware of the security risk involved in speaking to the committee and has been on alert.
CNN’s Pamela Brown contributed to this report.