WASHINGTON (AP) — The Justice Department failed Tuesday to obtain a grand jury indictment against a former White House staffer who provided dramatic but controversial information. testimony against President Donald Trump before a House committee investigating the January 6, 2021 insurrection at the United States Capitolaccording to two people familiar with the matter.
A grand jury in Washington rejected prosecutors’ request to return an indictment against Cassidy Hutchinsonsaid the people, who spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the matter publicly. It’s the latest setback in the Justice Department’s efforts to persuade grand jurors in the nation’s capital to bring politically sensitive cases.
The details of prosecutors’ allegations against Hutchinson were not immediately clear, but Republican lawmakers had accused her of lying under oath during her explosive 2022 testimony about Trump’s behavior on Jan. 6, when a mob of his supporters stormed the Capitol to stop Congressional Certification of his electoral defeat to Democrat Joe Biden.
The effort to charge Hutchinson was not isolated. It comes amid a surge in politically sensitive actions by the Justice Department ahead of next week’s midterm elections, targeting perceived opponents of the president, including a new attempt to prosecute former James Comey, Director of the FBI and a search by federal agents at the home of a vocal Trump critic and Democratic U.S. Rep. Ilhan Omar of Minnesota.
It is highly unusual for grand juries to refuse to return indictments, but the Justice Department under Trump has been rebuked by citizens of the nation’s capital in a number of high-profile cases. A grand jury in Washington earlier this year has declined to charge Democratic lawmakers in connection with a video they recorded urging U.S. service members to follow established military protocols and reject orders they deem illegal.
Hutchinson declined to comment Tuesday through his attorney.
Hutchinson said Trump was angry and defiant on January 6.
Hutchinson’s testimony, in a surprise hearing announced just 24 hours earlier, was considered particularly compelling at the time given her proximity to power as special assistant to Marc PresTrump’s chief of staff.
She described an angry and defiant president who tried to let armed protesters avoid security checks at a rally that morning to protest his 2020 election defeat and who then grabbed the wheel of the presidential SUV when the Secret Service refused to let him go to the Capitol. And when events at the Capitol escalated into violence, the crowd chanting “Hang Mike Pence” she testified that Trump refused to intervene.
Trump then denied on his social media platform, Truth Social, much of what Hutchinson said. He called it “completely false” and “bad news.”
Hutchinson’s description of the altercation inside the presidential SUV was considered particularly explosive, although she acknowledged during her testimony that she was relaying what she had heard from a White House security official and that she did not have direct knowledge of the episode because she was not there.
His account was quickly disputed.
In March 2024, House Republicans released an undisclosed transcript of the select committee’s interview with a Secret Service officer who drove the presidential SUV. This transcript from the presidential limousine driver contradicts some of Hutchinson’s testimony but corroborates other aspects of his account, including Trump’s attempt to join the mob scene at the Capitol.
The driver described the president as insisting on going to the Capitol, but said he did not see the altercation Hutchinson described. The driver said Trump “never grabbed the steering wheel” and also said, “I didn’t see him at all, you know, lunging to try to get in the front seat.”
Hutchinson alleged that members of Trump’s inner circle dangled job opportunities and financial aid to her while she cooperated with the committee. She also testified in a closed-door interview made public by the committee that one of her former lawyers — a former ethics adviser in the Trump White House — told her “the less you remember, the better.”
“It seems ridiculous, because in my heart I knew where my loyalties lay, and my loyalties lay with the truth,” she told the committee. “And I never wanted to stray from that.” The former lawyer disputed this version.
The US House of Representatives Trump impeached in 2021 over allegations that he incited the mob to attack the Capitol, but he was later acquitted by the Senate. The Justice Department under Biden accused Trump of criminal offensesaccusing him of illegally working to overturn his 2020 election defeat in the run-up to the Capitol attack, but then-special counsel Jack Smith dropped the case after Trump’s 2024 presidential victory. Longstanding Justice Department policy states that sitting presidents cannot be criminally prosecuted.
Hutchinson, a native of Pennington, New Jersey, previously worked in the White House Office of Legislative Affairs and interned for Republicans including Rep. Steve Scalise of Louisiana and Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas.
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Follow AP coverage of the January 6, 2021 insurrection at https://apnews.com/hub/capitol-siege.
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