Following the January 6th House Select Committee’s bombshell announcement of a surprise hearing for this afternoon, despite their previously announced pause, we learned this morning that the surprise witness set to appear before the Panel today was none other than Cassidy Hutchinson, former White House aide to Trump’s old Chief of Staff Mark Meadows.
Since Hutchinson took to the witness stand at 1:00 P.M. ET this afternoon, her testimony has been nothing short of explosive.
The former White House aide testified today that both former President Donald Trump and his then Chief of Staff Mark Meadows were thoroughly informed that many of the attendees at Trump’s infamous January 6th, 2021, “Stop The Steal” rally at the Ellipse were heavily armed.
According to Hutchinson, not only did the then-president not care, he was brutally “furious” that those armed people weren’t being let into his rally, because the area surrounding his rally was not filled to capacity.
Stay up-to-date with the latest news!
Subscribe and start recieving our daily emails.
“I was in the vicinity of a conversation where I overheard the president say something to the effect of, ‘I don’t f—— care that they have weapons. They’re not here to hurt me. Take the f—— mags away,'” Cassidy testified under oath this afternoon. She was referencing the magnetometers used by the Secret Service to scan for weapons before individuals are allowed to be in the vicinity of the president.
“President Trump was aware that a number of the individuals in the crowd had weapons and were wearing body armor. And here’s what President Trump instructed the crowd to do,” Committee Vice-Chair Liz Cheney prefaced a clip of Trump telling the crowd on Jan. 6, “We’re going to walk down to the Capitol.”
The Hill reports, “Her [Cassidy Hutchinson] deposition about Trump’s frustration and calls to overrule Secret Service was prefaced with testimony that former deputy chief of staff Tony Ornato had informed both Meadows and Trump that some of the attendees at the rally on Jan. 6 were carrying weapons.”
“Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.), the vice chair of House Jan. 6 committee, also introduced audio of radio transmissions from law enforcement ahead of the rally at the Ellipse. Officers can be heard relaying reports of attendees carrying AR-15 rifles and Glock pistols. The committee learned some attendees had brass knuckles, knives, stun guns and other weapons confiscated after passing through the magnetometers.”
See Hutchinson’s testimony here:
Trump was upset that the metal detectors were influencing his crowd size so he demanded they take “the f’ing mags” and that he didn’t care if they had weapons and they could march to the Capitol from there pic.twitter.com/OTzf29jLZY
— Acyn (@Acyn) June 28, 2022
Featured image via screen capture
