Donald Trump’s former chief of staff Mick Mulvaney has called it “a very, very bad day” for the former president. Because?
All of this boils down to the “condemnatory” testimony of former White House aide Cassidy Hutchinson, made at an unscheduled public hearing for the U.S. Capitol riot committee on Tuesday, local time.
It has also raised questions about what will be next in the ongoing investigation into the Jan. 6 attack and whether what has been learned today could lead to criminal charges against some big names.
This is how you could play.
Come back, what happened today?
Mrs. Hutchinson was a great aide to Donald Trump’s last chief of staff at work, Mark Meadows.
Mrs. Hutchinson testified for hours this morning. (AP Photo / Pool: Andrew Harnik)
In his testimony, he alleged previously unknown details about:
- The scope of Mr.’s anger. Trump during his last weeks in office, including saying that White House security chief Tony Ornato had told him that Trump tried to physically force his driver to take him to the Capitol while protesters stormed the building. .
- Mr. Trump threw his lunch at the wall in December after discovering that then-Attorney General William Barr had told the media that there was no fraud on a scale large enough to tip the election.
- As Trump learned that some supporters had carried guns on January 6, and yet he wanted metal-detecting magnetometers removed before his speech so more people could fill the space (because the photos would look better)
- The link between Trump’s attorney, Rudy Giuliani, and right-wing group Proud Boys, saying he heard them mentioned in the Jan. 6 plans when Mr. Giuliani was around.
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Former Justice Department senior attorney David Laufman told the Washington Post that Ms. Hutchinson’s testimony “contained credible information that would support” prosecutors who viewed Trump as a target in a seditious conspiracy investigation.
What can the January 6 commission really do?
It’s a hearing in Congress that isn’t a court of law, so they can’t charge someone with alleged crimes.
However, they can make a criminal referral to the prosecutors of the Department of Justice.
However, does the U.S. Department of Justice believe it has a case against the former president?
This is still an unanswered question.
U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland has so far not commented on a possible criminal case against Trump or any other high-profile person appointed to public hearings.
“I’m watching and I’ll be watching all the audiences,” he said earlier this month.
However, some legal experts have said Ms. Hutchinson’s testimony could give prosecutors more facts to investigate.
University of Texas law professor Stephen Vladeck said Trump’s urge to remove metal detectors could be crucial.
In Ms. Hutchinson’s testimony, she said Mr. Trump’s comments were, “I don’t care if they have guns. They’re not here to hurt me. Take out the magazines. Let my people in. They can from here to the Capitol “.
Vladeck said that while not a court of law, the evidence was solid.
“If this is not powerful evidence I was not only aware of the possibility of violence on the sixth [of January]but that he wanted to actively encourage it, I’m not quite sure what it is, ”he said.
“When you have witnesses who are in these conversations, who are in these rooms, who are actively participating in the high-level discussions of January 6, it seems to me that one of two things must be true: either they are lying, or [former] President Trump and many people close to him are in grave danger. “
The committee has been investigating what happened in 2021 for almost a year.
What we are learning now comes out through a series of public hearings: a total of six had initially been scheduled.
However, today’s testimony was a surprise additional hearing, and the sixth of the committee, and the next was not until July.
How do people react to the testimony?
Former Trump White House press secretary Sarah Matthews tweeted her support for Ms. Hutchinson, saying the testimony was “condemnatory.”
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And a former Trump White House communications director, Alyssa Farah Griffin, praised her “courage and integrity.”
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Ms. Hutchinson also became Trump’s approach to Social Truth, the website he created after Twitter banned him after the uprising.
She made several posts, calling the committee “kangaroo court” and accused her of lying.
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“I don’t know who this person is, Cassidy Hutchinson, other than that I heard very negative things about her (a total fake and a‘ filter ’),” she wrote.
He went on to post throughout the afternoon, saying that his body language “is that of a total bull, artist” and describing his writing as “that of a Whacko?”
However, there could be a counterclaim against one aspect of Ms. Hutchinson’s account.
Citing her conversation with Ornato, Ms. Hutchinson had testified that Mr. Trump fought with Secret Service agents on Jan. 6, after they insisted he return to the White House instead of joining supporters who stormed. the Capitol.
The New York Times and NBC, citing Secret Service sources, said Trump’s head of security detail, Robert Engel, and the driver were willing to testify under oath that Mr. Trump never got behind the wheel. .
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Mr. Engel was in the room when Mr. Ornato transmitted the story, Mrs. Hutchinson said today.
The Secret Service responded to today’s hearing, saying it had already cooperated fully with the committee, but that it planned to “respond formally and consistently” as soon as the committee could accommodate.
Mr. Trump also talked about this story, posting on his social media:
“Her fake story that I tried to grab the steering wheel of the White House limousine to take her to the Capitol building is‘ disease ’and fraudulent,” Trump posted.
Mrs Hutchinson’s lawyer said those with knowledge of the episode should also “testify under oath”:
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ABC / children
Posted 2 hours, 2 hours ago, Wednesday, June 29, 2022 at 5:43 AM, updated 1 hour, 1 hour ago, Wednesday, June 29, 2022 at 6:28 AM