Colin
Updated:
One of the star witnesses for the U.S. House of Representatives panel that investigated the Jan. 6, 2021, breach of the U.S. Capitol changed 47 answers after she testified to the panel four times, a newly revealed document shows.
Cassidy Hutchinson, who was an aide to White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows when the breach happened, made the changes after she made new claims for the first time in the fourth interview with the House Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the United States Capitol.
Ms. Hutchinson, for instance, said in an earlier interview that she did not know whether anyone told then-President Trump whether some people at the Ellipse, where he gave a speech, were carrying weapons. The erratum says that was wrong. Ms. Hutchinson, it says, actually knew that President Trump was told there were weapons in the crowd.
Ms. Hutchinson claimed that an aide had informed the president of weapons in the crowd, but did not say she overheard or witnessed the conversation.
Another update involved a question about whether there were discussions about referencing Antifa, the far-left network when discussing Jan. 6.
“I was not privy to any conversations to include a word or the acronym ‘antifa’ in any of the president’s correspondence to the public after the events and—after or during the events that transpired on Jan. 6,” Ms. Hutchinson said originally.
She said that there was “an emphasis on blaming Antifa” in the erratum.
A third update dealt with a card from the White House that said, “Anyone who entered the Capitol without proper authority should leave immediately.”
Ms. Hutchinson said at first that she was the one who wrote the phrase on the card but that she did not remember who relayed it to her.
“There was somebody who had called me on my work cell phone, and this was a draft tweet that this person felt would be useful if it went out from the President’s Twitter or from another significant media surrogate,” she said. “And I remember writing this down and passing it in to Mark and giving him the context in real time. I don’t recall who relayed this message to me, though.”
In the erratum, Ms. Hutchinson said that Mr. Meadows dictated the phrase to her.
The erratum changed 47 earlier answers across the four interviews and ran 15 pages.
The Jan. 6 panel, which was disbanded at the end of the previous Congress, did not release the document. Rep. Barry Loudermilk (R-Ga.), chairman of the House Administration’s Subcommittee on Investigations, made it public on April 15.
Multiple witnesses disputed Ms. Hutchinson’s claim, including Anthony Ornato, a Secret Service agent to whom she attributed the allegation.
Ms. Hutchinson’s lawyer has not responded to requests for comment on the erratum.
Ms. Hutchinson said in her fourth interview that the new claims stemmed from switching legal representation. Her previous lawyer, she said, told her that “you’re not lying if you say you don’t recall,” she alleged.
Ms. Hutchinson also wrote in her book that she was prepared to divulge the previously undisclosed information in her third interview, but did not.
Ms. Hutchinson ended up testifying to the panel another time in a public hearing. Her claims were widely broadcast and reported on by news media.
“The select committee, despite knowing that Hutchinson’s testimony changed substantially over time to be more dramatic, rushed into yet another Hollywood hearing even though they were not able to verify the story,” Mr. Loudermilk’s subcommittee said in its interim report. “The select committee latched onto a sensational and uncorroborated story in its attempt to publicly prosecute Donald Trump.”
Mr. Loudermilk also previously circulated a transcript with the driver of the vehicle in which President Trump was riding. The driver told the panel that President Trump did not lunge for the wheel.
The transcript with the driver has not been publicly released.
Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.), the chairman of the Jan. 6 panel, defended keeping some transcripts secret. He said recently that the panel had to send some transcripts to the executive branch to review while noting that references to the transcripts were included in the panel’s final report. All of the evidence the panel gathered, he said, “points to the same conclusion: Donald Trump wanted to join his violent mob as it marched on the Capitol.”
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