US Justice Department Seeks to Charge Ex-Trump Aide Hutchinson Over Capitol Attack Testimony
Prosecutors at the US Justice Department are reportedly seeking criminal charges against Cassidy Hutchinson, who gave key testimony on the January 6 attack on the Capitol. The potential charges involve lying to Congress.
Prosecutors in the US Justice Department's civil rights division are pursuing criminal charges against Cassidy Hutchinson, a former senior White House aide, according to a person familiar with the matter. The potential charges relate to lying to Congress.
Hutchinson worked as an aide to White House chief of staff Mark Meadows. She told the committee investigating the attack on the Capitol that the deputy chief of staff for operations had described to her how Trump did not want to return to the White House on January 6 and at one point grabbed the wheel of his SUV in an attempt to join supporters at the Capitol. Republicans have long disputed that account.
The department's efforts to indict Hutchinson were first reported on Thursday by Punchbowl News. A department spokesperson said it does not confirm or deny the existence of investigations, or the lack thereof.
An unusual arrangement
In April, The New York Times reported that civil rights division prosecutors, who normally handle civil rights crimes, had been assigned to investigate Hutchinson. That was considered highly unusual, since such a case would typically fall to the US attorney for the District of Columbia. Hutchinson herself stated in filings in an unrelated case that she was under investigation by the Justice Department.
Wider context
The case is the latest example of Trump using the Justice Department against his adversaries. Last year, the department indicted former FBI director James Comey for lying to Congress and Letitia James for mortgage fraud. Both indictments were dismissed after a judge ruled that the prosecutor overseeing them had been unlawfully appointed. The department has since filed a new indictment against Comey over a photo of seashells arranged to spell "8647." The Trump Justice Department has also brought charges against the nonprofit Southern Poverty Law Center and journalist Don Lemon.
