On Wednesday, ABC 7 reported that the upcoming final report from the House Select Committee on January 6 could reveal new information about former President Donald Trump's alleged efforts to force his security detail to take him to the Capitol complex to join the rioters sacking the premises.
This comes after former White House staffer Cassidy Hutchinson testified to the committee that Trump lunged at a Secret Service agent driving his car, and tried to wrest the wheel away from him, when the agent refused to take him to the Capitol.
"The summary details that the panel was ultimately unable to get former White House deputy chief of staff Tony Ornato to corroborate a bombshell moment during the public hearings, in which Hutchinson recalled Ornato describing Trump's altercation with the head of his security detail when he was told he would not be taken to the Capitol following his speech on the Ellipse," reported Annie Grayer.
"The committee summary said both Hutchinson and a White House employee testified to the panel about the Ornato conversation. But 'Ornato professed that he did not recall either communication, and that he had no knowledge at all about the President's anger,'" said the report. "The committee wrote that it 'has significant concerns about the credibility of this testimony' and vowed to release his transcript publicly. Ornato did not recall conveying the information to Hutchinson or a White House employee with national security responsibilities, according to the report. 'The Committee is skeptical of Ornato's account.' The transcripts could help explain any discrepancies in testimony."
This also comes amid fresh scrutiny into Hutchinson's advice from Stefan Passantino, a former White House ethics lawyer who was in the employ of a Trump-aligned political committee to provide legal counsel to former Trump officials called to testify before the committee.
According to a new report, Passantino advised Hutchinson to say she didn't recall various details of the January 6 attack that put Trump in a bad light, even though she did in fact recall those details. Hutchinson dropped him as an attorney shortly after this.
Leave a Comment
Related Post
