WASHINGTON — The House Select January 6th Committee’s “star” Cassidy Hutchinson provided “second hearsay” about the 2021 Capitol riot and wasn’t considered as a witness in the election interference case brought against President Trump, according to former special counsel Jack Smith.
Smith told the House Judiciary Committee in a closed-door deposition on Dec. 17 that Hutchinson — who testified at the Jan. 6 select panel’s made-for-TV hearings in June 2022 — “certainly” wouldn’t have made a “powerful” witness because she couldn’t provide “firsthand” testimony.
“My recollection with Ms. Hutchinson, at least one of the issues was a number of the things that she gave evidence on were secondhand hearsay, were things that she had heard from other people,” the ex-Trump prosecutor testified to the Judiciary lawmakers and staff, the deposition’s transcript shows.
“As a result, that testimony may or may not be admissible, and it certainly wouldn’t be as powerful as firsthand testimony,” Smith said.
That included “sensational” allegations that the 45th president lunged toward the wheel of his Secret Service SUV, known as “the Beast,” in an attempt to commandeer it from his driver as a mob of his supporters were seeking to halt the certification of the 2020 election on Capitol Hill.
“I’m the f—ing president! Take me up to the Capitol now!” Trump allegedly screamed at the Secret Service agent, according to Hutchinson’s testimony in a live-broadcasted House hearing on June 28, 2022.
White House Deputy Chief of Staff for Operations Anthony Ornato, who by Hutchinson’s own admission relayed the startling incident to her, immediately claimed her account was false.
The agent and the driver of the vehicle also separately refuted Hutchinson’s testimony as well, with the president’s chauffeur telling committee members in a non-televised interview that Trump “never grabbed the steering wheel” or “lunge[d] to try to get into the front seat at all.”
But the Democrat-led House committee “hid the driver’s full testimony” and did not release the full transcript, according to Rep. Barry Loudermilk (R-Ga.), who opened a probe into the select panel and Jan. 6 after the GOP retook the majority in 2023.
The House select committee, which was chaired by Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.), didn’t release its final report until Dec. 22, 2022, after the midterm elections.
Smith told the Judiciary panel this month in his deposition: “Ms. Hutchinson, regarding that particular claim, was a second or even third-hand witness. She had heard other people talk about that.”
“We interviewed, I think, the people she talked to, and we also interviewed, if my recollection is correct, officers who were there, including the officer who was in the car,” he said.
“And that officer, if my recollection is correct, and I want to make sure I’m right about this, said that President Trump was very angry and wanted to go to the Capitol, but the version of events that he explained was not the same as what Cassidy Hutchinson said she heard from somebody secondhand,” he added.
Hutchinson, who served as an aide to White House chief of staff Mark Meadows during the first Trump administration, also testified that the president wanted armed people to pass through magnetometers for his “Stop the Steal” rally.
She claimed Trump said of the crowd at the Ellipse on Jan. 6, 2021: “They’re not here to hurt me. Take the f—ing mags [magnetometers] away. Let my people in. They can march to the Capitol from here.”
“We interviewed a number of people, and I think on this particular claim there were a number of different perspectives about that,” Smith divulged in his deposition. “I believe it was Ms. Hutchinson, Mr. Ornato. I believe Mr. Meadows we spoke to about this.”
“As I sit here right now, I cannot recall what each of them said. I know each of them were seeing it from a different perspective, and they were with Mr. Trump at slightly different times,” he said.
The former special counsel clarified that his team never made “any final determination” about calling Hutchinson as a witness “or not.”
“[T]here were instances, you cited a couple, where we had evidence, we had different perspectives about an issue. We had secondhand hearsay about an issue or two witnesses not remembering something the same way,” Smith told the Judiciary lawmakers and staff. “So those are all accurate.”
Former Hunter Biden business associate Tony Bobulinski also sued Hutchinson for up to $10 million in damages last year for claiming he was involved in a “shady business dealing” with Meadows before the 2020 election, The Post first reported.
Hutchinson made the allegedly defamatory accusation in her 2023 memoir “Enough,” and the case is still ongoing in DC federal court.
Bobulinski, a decorated Navy vet, offered to forgo the awarding of any damages if Hutchinson donated 20% of her Trump White House tell-all’s advance to a children’s hospital.
