Washington
CNN
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The Jan. 6 commission released another set of transcripts on Tuesday, including two interviews with hit witness Cassidy Hutchinson and testimony from several other Trump White House officials. .
The latest batch reveals new details about Hutchinson’s dueling loyalties, which ultimately led to a change of attorney and a damning testimony about what she saw and heard at the White House after the 2020 election. increase.
One of the minutes released Tuesday was the final deposition on May 17 with the first Trump-funded lawyer, Stefan Passantino. It was also released on Tuesday. That was just eight days before she made a surprise testimony at the Commission’s sixth hearing on January 6.
The latest cache of records circulates rumors, gossip, that have been floating around the White House, including conversations about a QAnon conspiracy, while then-President Donald Trump refused to admit and tried to overturn the election results. , and also revealed some of the wild conspiracies.
A new batch of records shows a deep chasm between Hutchinson, a former aide to Trump’s White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows, and Passantino just weeks before she hired a new lawyer. According to a transcript of her May deposition, the two had quarreled several times, with Passantino interrupting Hutchinson several times, interrupting her with warnings about her testimony, and sometimes interfering with her remarks. tried to manipulate the
Indeed, Passantino told Hutchinson during his deposition that he “has no intention of shaping what you say.” “I’m representing her,” he said.
The May interview began with a question about whether Trump agreed with some mob chants calling for the hanging of then-Vice President Mike Pence.
Hutchinson said he did not hear these comments directly, but said he heard Meadows refer them to two White House attorneys. Pasatino then interrupted the line of questions and warned Hutchinson not to accidentally divulge privileged legal advice.
She went on to testify that she overheard Meadows say that Trump thought “maybe the chant was justified”. One, and featured prominently in panel hearings.
As Hutchinson continued to testify about Trump’s alleged reaction to the chant, Passantino jumped in again.
“I don’t want to get in the way, and I don’t want to frame what you’re saying here,” he said, offering a different take on Trump’s reaction to the anti-Pence chant. Rather than express a clear, positive view that should be done, he told lawmakers he believed “the president probably said they were right.”
After Hutchinson split with Passantino, her new attorney told the Commission on January 6 that during the June deposition, some of her previous testimony needed to be clarified and “corrected.” said there is
Hunt, a new attorney, told the committee that Hutchinson wanted to provide context for his earlier testimony and clarify that he “wanted to correct himself in some respects.”
“She wants to be clear on that,” Hunt said, thanking the committee for the opportunity to address Hutchinson’s earlier testimony.
Hutchinson provided the committee with transcripts of her first two interviews to clarify and elaborate on much of what she said.
She went on to provide a fair amount of new and terrible testimony about Trump’s actions on January 6, 2021.
According to one of Hutchinson’s transcripts, Meadows instructed White House staff to keep some Oval Office meetings “close-held” during the transition period, when the meetings would be taken off the books. there is a possibility.
Hutchinson also testified that there were “certain things that may have been left out” in the Oval Office diaries.
Hutchinson said he recalled Meadows holding a meeting in late November or early December 2020 and telling external staff of the Oval Office: We’ll talk about what that means later, but for now, we’ll keep things confidential and private to avoid leaking information. ”
She testified that she could not remember whether there was any specific information that Meadows wanted to keep “close”. said he was not aware of the
Additionally, she told the commission that between December 2020 and mid-January 2021, she saw Meadows burn papers in her office fireplace more than a dozen times — once or twice a week.
Hutchinson said she was in Meadows’ office several times when he threw the document into the fireplace after the meeting. On at least two of her arson attacks, Republican Scott, a Pennsylvania Republican involved in efforts to use the Justice Department to overturn the 2020 election, followed his meeting with Rep. Perry. was broken. The New York Times and Politico previously reported on Meadows’ alleged document-burning practices.
Hutchinson said he didn’t know what the documents were, whether they were copies of the originals, or if they were required by law to be preserved.
Hutchinson told the committee about several discussions at the White House over the QAnon conspiracy.
In a June interview, Hutchinson said he discussed QAnon during meetings in December 2020 with Republican lawmakers, including Meadows, then-President Trump, and Georgia Republican Congressman Marjorie Taylor Greene.
“I remember Marjorie Taylor-Green covering QAnon a few times, in front of the president, privately with Mark,” Hutchinson testified. I remember, more specifically about QAnon and the thoughts they had about the election and not so much about planning the January 6th rally.”
In an interview in May, Hutchinson said he also remembers Green bringing up QAnon when Trump was in Georgia for a rally on January 4, 2021.
“MS. Greene came over and started telling us about QAnon and QAnon going to a rally.” rice field.”
Hutchinson also testified that Trump aide Peter Navarro would bring her materials about the election to Meadows. “Oh, is this from a QAnon friend, Peter?”
“He said, ‘Cath, have you looked it up yet? I’m sure you’ll point out a lot of good ideas. You really need to read this. Make sure the chief sees it.'” she continued.
Rep. Liz Cheney, the top Republican on the committee, asked Hutchinson if Navarro was being sarcastic about QAnon’s friends.
“I didn’t find it ironic,” Hutchinson said. “While I was serving as Chief of Staff, he would frequently bring memos and PowerPoints on various policy proposals and elaborate on them. ‘That’s what Q says.'”
Judd Deere, who was President Trump’s deputy White House press secretary, told a committee on Jan. 6 that Trump would recognize Biden and invite him to the White House in the week following the 2020 election. He said he had heard “rumors” from colleagues that he was considering it.
“In the week after the election, there was gossip around the building where he was considering concessions,” he told the panel, according to a transcript of his testimony released Tuesday.
Mr Deere said Mr Trump was “strongly considering inviting the president-elect and first lady-elect to the White House.”
He added, “As the deputy press secretary responsible for ensuring that the protected press is always accessible to him…I was curious to learn more about whether the next president and first lady would visit. ”
Congressional investigators pressured Deere to reveal where he heard the rumors, but he said he didn’t remember. This led to a violent attack on the US Capitol on January 6th.
