Trump Knew Protesters Were Armed, White House Aide Tells January 6 Committee

WASHINGTON — Cassidy Hutchinson, a key aide in President Trump’s White House, told the House committee investigating the violent events of January 6, 2021 on Tuesday that Mr. Trump was informed that the supporters he addressed that morning had weapons but he told officials to “let my people in” and march to the Capitol.Mr. Trump demanded to accompany them, she said, and at one point he aggressively grabbed the steering wheel in the presidential limousine after he was told by security officials that it wasn’t safe. Ms. Hutchinson, who was an aide to the White House chief of staff, Mark Meadows, said she was told that by Mr. Meadows’ deputy.She said she wasn’t sure what he would have done at the Capitol as a violent mob of his supporters was breaking in. There were conversations about him “going into the House chamber at one point,” Ms. Hutchinson said.Ms. Hutchinson quoted Mr. Trump as directing his staff, in profane terms, to take away the metal-detecting magnetometers that he thought would slow down supporters who’d gathered in Washington. In videotaped testimony played before the committee, she recalled the former president saying words to the effect of: “I don’t f-in’ care that they have weapons.”“They’re not here to hurt me. Take the f-in’ mags away. Let my people in. They can march to the Capitol from here,” Ms. Hutchinson testified.As Trump spoke to thousands of supporters on the Ellipse behind the White House — and more gathered on the Washington Monument grounds, Ms. Hutchinson said, she received an angry call from the House minority leader, Kevin McCarthy, who had just heard the president say he was coming to the Capitol. “Don’t come up here,” Mr. McCarthy told her, before hanging up.In the days before the attack, Ms. Hutchinson said that she was “scared, and nervous for what could happen” ahead of the riot after conversations with Mr. Trump’s lawyer, Mayor Giuliani, Mr. Meadows and others.Mr. Meadows told Ms. Hutchinson that “things might get real real bad,” she said. Mr. Giuliani told her it was going to be “a great day” and “we’re going to the Capitol.” She described Mr. Meadows as unconcerned as security officials told him that people at Mr. Trump’s rally had weapons — including people wearing armor and carrying automatic weapons.A month earlier, Ms. Hutchinson said, she heard noise inside the White House around the time an Associated Press article was published in which Attorney General Barr said the Justice Department had not found evidence of voter fraud that could have affected the election outcome.She said she entered a room and noticed ketchup dripping down a wall and broken porcelain. The president, it turned out, had thrown his lunch across the wall in disgust over the article and she was urged to steer clear of him.The 25-year-old, who was a special assistant and aide to former Trump chief of staff Mark Meadows, has already provided a trove of information to congressional investigators and has sat for four interviews behind closed doors. But the committee called the hearing this week to hear her public testimony.Representative Bennie Thompson, the committee’s chairman, said that in recent days, the panel had received information about what Mr. Trump and his aides were saying during critical hours of January 6 and that it was critical for the American people to hear that information immediately.The committee’s vice chairwoman, Representative Elizabeth Cheney, said the hearing would shed light on Mr. Trump’s conduct at the time, the “actions and statements” of senior advisers and also what they knew about the prospect of violence in the days before the violent attack. She told the panel in earlier interviews that Mr. Meadows was warned about possible unrest.Her appearance was cloaked in extraordinary secrecy. The committee announced the surprise hearing with only 24 hours’ notice, and Ms. Hutchison’s appearance was only confirmed to the AP by a person familiar with the matter.Ms. Hutchinson’s testimony offers a first-hand story of Mr. Trump’s pressure campaign, and how the former president responded after the violence began, more vividly than any other witness the committee has called in thus far.

Trump Knew Protesters Were Armed, White House Aide Tells January 6 Committee

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