Sources close to the Secret Service and one of the individuals named by Cassidy Hutchinson told NBC News that the head of Trump’s security detail and the vehicle’s driver were prepared to dispute Hutchinson’s account under oath.
Watch:
According to Hutchinson, Robert Engel, the head of Trump’s Secret Service detail, said that Trump yelled, “I’m the f—— president, take me up to the Capitol now,” to which Engel responded, “Sir, we have to go back to the West Wing.”
“The president then reached up to grab at the steering wheel,” Hutchinson recalled Engel saying.
After Engel rebuffed Trump, the former president lunged at Engle, she testified.
NBC:
“Former President Donald Trump tried to grab the steering wheel of his presidential vehicle and lunged toward his security detail when he was informed that he would not be taken to the Capitol following his Jan. 6 rally, according to a former top White House official. Her comments Tuesday raised the prospect of new testimony from the individuals involved who sources say is willing to testify under oath to push back on that account.”
“Ms. Hutchinson stands by all of the testimony she provided yesterday, under oath, to the Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the United States Capitol,” her attorneys said in a statement.
The Jan. 6 committee has continued to insist that they found Hutchinson’s testimony credible and invited those who would dispute her to come forward and give sworn testimony.
Eric Herschmann, a former Trump White House lawyer who has provided damning testimony about Trump’s plot to overturn the election, is now saying that he wrote a handwritten note as the violence unfolded at the Capitol — not Hutchinson, as she testified.
“Anyone who entered the Capitol without proper authority should leave immediately,” read the note, which was written on Chief of Staff Mark Meadows’ stationery and intended for Trump to release as rioters stormed the Capitol.
“The handwritten note that Cassidy Hutchinson testified was written by her was in fact written by Eric Herschmann on January 6, 2021,” a Herschmann spokesperson said. “All sources with direct knowledge and law enforcement have and will confirm that it was written by Mr. Herschmann.”