A striking testimony was heard on Tuesday before the commission of inquiry into the invasion of the Capitol: according to Cassidy Hutchinson, the former assistant to the chief of staff of the White House, Donald Trump would have tried, by physically attacking his driver, to join the rioters.
The most important testimony since the start of the hearings? On Tuesday, the House Committee of Inquiry into the Capitol Invasion held an unscheduled session to hear from Cassidy Hutchinson, the former assistant to White House chief of staff Mark Meadows. And the 26-year-old’s testimony, given under oath and interspersed with recordings of other depositions, is probably the heaviest against Donald Trump. She told how she experienced it on January 6, 2021, when Donald Trump gave a speech to his supporters gathered outside the Capitol, where the results of the presidential election were to be certified by Congress. The political rally turned into a riot, with the irruption of hundreds of supporters of Donald Trump and the emergency evacuation of elected officials in the face of the risk posed by some violent rioters.
Cassidy Hutchinson during her testimony, June 28, 2022.
© Evelyn Hockstein/Reuters
Before the speech of the outgoing president, who had been hammering for weeks that he had not been able to lose the election and had been the victim of massive electoral fraud, he was severely annoyed by the influx, insufficient in his eyes. . “He was upset that we weren’t letting armed people through. I overheard the president say something like, ‘I don’t care if they’re armed, they’re not here to hurt me. Remove the metal detectors. Let my people through. Cassidy Hutchinson recalled. And after speaking in front of a galvanized crowd, Donald Trump took it into his head to head to the Capitol, where some had even installed a gallows to hang his Vice President Mike Pence, guilty in their eyes of refusing to s oppose the legal certification of the results. “The president responded with a lot of anger. He said something like, ‘I’m the fucking president. Take me to the Capitol now.'”
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“There was ketchup on the wall and broken porcelain on the floor”
Faced with the refusal of his entourage, including the Secret Service citing security reasons, Donald Trump would have become physically violent, “leaning forward of the vehicle to grab the steering wheel”. Robert Engel, the head of the Secret Service unit responsible for presidential security, allegedly tried to grab his arm to stop him and reason with him. “Mr. Trump used his free hand to lunge at Bobby Engel,” continued Cassidy Hutchinson, who takes this account from White House deputy chief of operations Tony Ornato, who was in the car and told him shortly after, visibly shocked by the scene. An anger of Donald Trump which she had already witnessed herself a month before, in the dining room of the White House: “There was ketchup on the wall and broken porcelain on the floor”, a-t she called back. The origin of the presidential wrath, which ended with “his lunch thrown against the wall”: the interview with Bill Barr, his Minister of Justice, who had assured the Associated Press agency that neither the FBI nor the prosecutors he oversaw had found any massive voter fraud that could have affected the outcome of the presidential election. The man was fired two weeks later.
Bobby Engel of the Secret Service and Donald Trump in September 2020.
© Tom Brenner / Reuters
The manifest violence of the rioters did not seem to alert Donald Trump, whose slowness to react to the invasion of the Capitol was strongly criticized. According to Cassidy Hutchinson, she had launched the alert, in particular with threats to Mike Pence, evacuated in emergency and who found himself ten meters from certain rioters for a few seconds. “You heard it Pat, would have answered Mark Meadows, taking to witness the legal adviser of the White House Pat Cipollone. He thinks Mike deserves it. He thinks they’re doing nothing wrong.”
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What consequences for Donald Trump?
Donald Trump reacted on his Parler account, the social network he co-founded since his exclusion from all other platforms following the invasion of the Capitol. Not waiting for the end of Cassidy Hutchinson’s hearing, the former American president who now lives in his home in Mar-a-Lago criticized her, assuring that her testimony was fueled only by the resentment of n to have been able to work for him after his presidency: “When she asked to come and work with certain other members of my team in Florida, I personally refused her request,” he wrote.
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It now remains to be seen what consequences Cassidy Hutchinson’s testimony will have for Donald Trump, who is multiplying meetings across the United States to influence the mid-term elections next November, seen as a springboard to consolidate his hold on the party. Republican for the presidential election of 2024. The billionaire has so far escaped any indictment as part of the commission of inquiry, after being impeached by the House of Representatives – but acquitted thanks to the support from Senate Republicans- for “inciting insurrection.”