Former president Donald Trump alleged that former White House aide Cassidy Hutchinson wanted to work for him long after the Capitol riot on January 6 in his latest salvo after she testified to the House select committee investigating the attack this week.
The former president made the accusations on his networking platform Truth Social, which he created after Twitter banned his account last year. His words come days after Ms Hutchinson testified before the House select committee and detailed the Trump administration’s actions before and during 6 January.
“Cassidy Hutchinson also forgot to tell the Unselects that she was desperate to go to Florida with certain others of the Trump staff, long after January 6th had come and gone”, he said. “If I was so evil, why did she fight so hard to stay a part of the MAGA team? This is all documented in writing.”
Mr Trump’s accusation contradicts documentation that he had already taken former aide to White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows Ben Williamson for his post-presidential staff.
Ms Hutchinson, who served as a special assistant to Mr Trump, spoke before the select committee on Tuesday and alleged that Mr Trump wanted metal detectors removed from around the area where he would deliver a speech. He, as Ms Hutchinson claimed, wanted this despite the fact that security officials said that some of his supporters were armed and wearing armor.
The former aide also said that Mr Trump’s speech to rallygoers was watered down after then-White House counsel Pat Cipollone warned that a line saying “fight for me, fight for what we are doing, fight for the movement” and Mr Trump’s desire to go to the Capitol would open them to being charged with “every crime imaginable.”
In addition, Ms Hutchinson recalled a conversation with former deputy White House chief of staff Tony Ornato and Special Agent in Charge Robert Engel, who drove the presidential vehicle, and said that she heard that Mr Trump demanded he be taken to the US Capitol. When he was denied, Ms Hutchinson said two Secret Service agents told her that Mr Trump tried grab the steering wheel and “lunged” at Mr Engel’s throat.
