The Justice Department is targeting Cassidy Hutchinson, the former Trump White House aide whose explosive testimony about January 6 put some of the most damaging allegations about Donald Trump before Congress.
Prosecutors in the DOJ’s Civil Rights Division are seeking an indictment accusing Hutchinson of lying to Congress, The Guarding reports, citing a person familiar with the matter.
The reported effort was first disclosed by Punchbowl News.
Hutchinson was once a top aide inside Trump’s White House.
Then she became one of the most important witnesses in the congressional investigation of the January 6 attack.
Now the Justice Department under Trump is reportedly trying to turn her testimony into a criminal case.
Hutchinson served as an aide to then-White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows. During a dramatic House committee hearing in June 2022, she testified about what she had been told happened after Trump addressed supporters near the White House on January 6.
According to Hutchinson, Tony Ornato, then the White House deputy chief of staff for operations, told her that Trump had been furious after Secret Service agents refused to take him to the Capitol.
She testified that Trump wanted to join his supporters and had tried to grab the steering wheel of the presidential SUV.
“The president reached up toward the front of the vehicle to grab at the steering wheel,” Hutchinson testified.
She also said Ornato told her Trump lunged toward Secret Service agent Robert Engel after being told he could not go to the Capitol.
The testimony became one of the most explosive moments of the January 6 hearings.
Now, more than four years later, prosecutors are reportedly investigating whether Hutchinson lied when she gave that testimony.
The Justice Department has not confirmed the investigation.
“The department does not confirm or deny the existence of investigations, or the lack thereof,” a DOJ spokesperson said.
The reported investigation has been underway for months.
The New York Times reported in April that prosecutors in the Civil Rights Division had been assigned to investigate Hutchinson.
That was unusual because an investigation of this kind would ordinarily be handled by the U.S. attorney’s office in Washington, D.C.
Hutchinson also disclosed in court filings that she was under investigation by the Justice Department.
Now the investigation is reportedly moving toward a possible indictment.
And that puts one of the most recognizable witnesses from the January 6 hearings in an extraordinary position.
Hutchinson went from working inside Trump’s White House to publicly testifying about what she said she had learned about his actions on January 6.
Her testimony helped make her a central figure in the committee’s investigation.
Now prosecutors working for the Trump Justice Department are reportedly preparing a case against her.
A grand jury has not indicted Hutchinson, and the specific statements prosecutors believe were false have not been publicly disclosed.
Hutchinson has also stood by her testimony.
So at this point, the allegations against her remain allegations.
But the broader pattern is already raising questions because this isn’t the first time the Justice Department under Trump has pursued prominent figures who became adversaries of the president.
Former FBI Director James Comey was indicted on charges related to congressional testimony, while New York Attorney General Letitia James was indicted on bank-fraud allegations. Both cases were later dismissed.
