Cassidy Hutchinson, former aide to Trump White House chief of staff Mark Meadows. Photo / AP
Cassidy Hutchinson, former aide to Trump White House chief of staff Mark Meadows. Photo / AP
More evidence is emerging from the U.S. House of Representative's investigation into the January 6 Capitol attack that lends support to recent testimony that serving President Donald Trump wanted to join the angry mob which marched upon the Capitol and subsequently rioted, a committee member said Sunday.
"There will beway more information and stay tuned," said Rep. Adam Kinzinger, R-Ill.
Rep Adam Kinzinger. Photo / AP
The committee has been intensifying its yearlong investigation into the attack on January 6, 2021, and Trump's efforts to overturn the 2020 election. The committee's vice chair, Rep. Liz Cheney, R-Wyo, has made it clear that criminal referrals to the Justice Department, including against Trump, could follow.
At least two more hearings are scheduled this month which will aim to show how Trump illegally directed a violent mob toward the Capitol on January 6, and then failed to take quick action to stop the attack once it began.
The committee has also been reviewing new documentary film footage of Trump's final months in office, including interviews with Trump and members of his family.
Kinzinger, in a television interview, declined to disclose the new information he referred to and did not say who had provided it. He said many more details emerged following last week's testimony from former White House aide Cassidy Hutchinson, and that nothing had changed the committee's confidence in her credibility.
— Ron Filipkowski 🇺🇦 (@RonFilipkowski) July 3, 2022
"There's information I can't say yet," he said. "We certainly would say that Cassidy Hutchinson has testified under oath, we find her credible, and anybody that wants to cast disparagements on that who were firsthand present should also testify under oath, and not through anonymous sources."
In a separate interview, another committee member, Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif, said: "We are following additional leads. I think those leads will lead to new testimony."
In Hutchinson's appearance before the committee last week, she painted a picture of Trump as an angry, defiant president who wished to allow for armed supporters to avoid being screened by security at a rally which occurred on the morning of January 6 in order to protest his 2020 election defeat to Democrat Joe Biden.
Legal experts have said Cassidy's testimony is potentially problematic for Trump as federal prosecutors investigate potential criminal wrongdoing.
"There could be more than one criminal referral," Cheney said in an interview that aired Sunday. She stated that the committee will decide later in the process whether to proceed.
Vice Chair Liz Cheney, R-Wyo, speaks as the House select committee. Photo / AP
Cassidy also recounted a conversation with Tony Ornato, Trump's Deputy Chief of Staff, where, she testified, Ornato said Trump later grabbed at the steering wheel of the presidential SUV when the Secret Service refused to let him go to the Capitol after the rally.
That account was quickly disputed, however. A person familiar with the incident said that both Ornato and Bobby Engel, the Secret Service agent who was driving Trump, are willing to testify under oath that no agent was assaulted and Trump never lunged for the steering wheel. This person would not discuss the matter publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity.
In recent days, the committee has subpoenaed former White House counsel Pat Cipollone and has been seeking more information from Ornato and Engel, who were previously interviewed by investigators.
Committee members hope Cipollone will come forward.
"He clearly has information about concerns about criminal violations, concerns about the president going to the Capitol that day, concerns about the chief of staff having blood on his hands if they didn't do more to stop that violent attack on the Capitol," Schiff said. "It's hard to imagine someone more at the centre of things."
The committee has also been working on setting up an interview with Virginia "Ginni" Thomas, the conservative activist and wife of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas. She was asked to speak to the committee after disclosures of her communications with Trump's team during the run-up to and on the day of the insurrection at the Capitol.
Kinzinger appeared on CNN's "State of the Union," Schiff was on CBS' "Face the Nation" and Cheney appeared on ABC's "This Week."
