Former president Donald Trump is claiming he “barely knew” the former White House aide who testified before the House January 6 select committee last month, despite having had to personally sign off on a promotion for her during his time in the White House.
Mr Trump aired his most recent set of grievances about former staffer turned select committee witness Cassidy Hutchinson on his own Truth Social platform on Sunday as a reaction to a television appearance by select committee member Zoe Lofgren of California.
“Incredibly, Congresswoman Lofgren of the Unselect Committee said they didn’t call witnesses to corroborate the testimony of other Fake Witnesses, like Cassidy Hutchinson, who I barely knew or even recognize, and who lied during her testimony,” Mr Trump said.
Ms Hutchinson, a former top aide to ex-White House chief of staff Mark Meadows, shocked observers when she testified that Mr Trump ordered magnetometers set up to prevent rallygoers from being weapons into an area where he was set to speak just before the Capitol riot. She testified under oath, and there is no evidence to suggest she did not tell the truth.
Moreover, Mr Trump would have had to know of Ms Hutchinson because a June 2020 list of staff salaries published by the White House shows her to have held the title of Special Assistant to the President and Coordinator for Legislative Affairs.
A Special Assistant to the President is a title awarded to a class of White House staff known as commissioned officers who are said to report directly to the president. Ms Hutchinson could not have held such a position without Mr Trump’s sign-off.
In a separate post, Mr Trump took aim at Wyoming Representative Liz Cheney, who he referred to as “psychco” (sic) and repeated an oft-told lie positing that he had recommended the Defence Department use 10,000 active duty soldiers to secure the Capitol ahead of the 6 January 2021 joint session of Congress at which his defeat to Joe Biden was to be made official.
