Grand Jury Declines to Indict Cassidy Hutchinson Over Jan. 6 Testimony
Seven Lights
A federal grand jury in Washington declined to indict Cassidy Hutchinson, a former White House aide whose 2022 testimony before the House committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol attack drew the lasting hostility of President Donald Trump’s allies.
A Justice Department lawyer told a magistrate judge Tuesday that the grand jury had not concurred on a proposed indictment, according to Axios and CBS News. The lawyer, identified by the Washington Post as Neville S. Hedley, a litigator with the department’s Civil Rights Division, did not name the defendant before U.S. Magistrate Judge Zia Faruqui, but the Washington Examiner reported that the division had presented the Hutchinson case to the panel, which typically sits with 16 to 23 members.
Hutchinson, a top aide to then-chief of staff Mark Meadows, testified that Trump and Meadows were warned on Jan. 6, 2021, that some supporters were carrying weapons to the Capitol, and that Trump said he did not care. She said Trump tried to push toward the building and, in a limousine ride, lunged at a Secret Service officer who refused to drive him there. Trump’s driver later gave sworn testimony contradicting the account, and other agents said they did not recall some episodes she described.
Republicans seized on the contradictions. Representative Barry Loudermilk of Georgia referred Hutchinson to the Justice Department for investigation earlier this year, with Representative Jim Jordan of Ohio co-signing. The referral set the grand jury inquiry in motion.
The refusal is a setback for the department as it pursues cases against figures the president views as adversaries of his Jan. 6 defense. Axios noted the grand jury’s decision came as the department continues other Jan. 6-related proceedings, including subpoenas of former Trump lawyers. Hutchinson’s attorneys had said the prosecution threatened to chill witnesses.
No charges were returned, and the Civil Rights Division declined comment. A conviction would have required proving she lied to Congress; prosecutors had not publicly identified which portions of her testimony they considered false.