During Cassidy Hutchinson’s testimony that has been highly damaging to Trump World, committee vice chair Liz Cheney mentioned two messages that potential witnesses received before that day that contained veiled threats to pressure them to not say anything damaging to Trump and his enabling cronies. We now learn that Hutchinson was the recipient.

The Jan. 6 select committee publicly pointed to two communications this week as potential evidence of Trump-world’s efforts to influence witness testimony — without revealing their origin. Both were detailed to the panel by Cassidy Hutchinson, according to a person familiar with the last of her four depositions.

Both of the two slides that the panel revealed at the end of its live hearing with Hutchinson reflected conversations she described to the committee in her final closed-door deposition, this person said. Hutchinson told the committee at the time that, on the eve of her earlier March 7 deposition, an intermediary for former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows contacted her to say that her former boss valued her loyalty.

“[A person] let me know you have your deposition tomorrow,” read a slide that the Jan. 6 committee broadcast at the end of Hutchinson’s hearing, which Vice Chair Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.) characterized as pressure on a key witness. “He wants me to let you know that he’s thinking about you. He knows you’re loyal, and you’re going to do the right thing when you go in for your deposition.”
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The other slide the Capitol riot committee unveiled at the end of its hearing with Hutchinson this week quoted an unnamed witness, now known to be the former Trump White House aide herself, describing multiple phone calls she received from allies of the former president.

The other slide the Capitol riot committee unveiled at the end of its hearing with Hutchinson this week quoted an unnamed witness, now known to be the former Trump White House aide herself, describing multiple phone calls she received from allies of the former president.

“What they said to me is as long as I continue to be a team player, they know I’m on the right team,” the slide said. “I’m doing the right thing. I’m protecting who I need to protect, you know, I’ll continue to stay in good graces in Trump World. And they have reminded me a couple of times that Trump does read transcripts.”

The report says that Trump’s chief of staff Mark Meadows is the “person” whose name was redacted.

Her testimony, which was highly damaging to Trump and Meadows and others close to Trump, clearly did not please Trump. I am worried as to what repercussions Hutchinson might face. These people will not hesitate to dox her and urge people to go to her home, call her at all hours of the night with threatening messages, threaten members of her family, and otherwise harass her. If they could do things like that to the bereaved parents of children who were murdered in mass shootings, they will think nothing of doing that or worse to her.

The committee is obviously aware of who sent the messages to her and may be keeping that information in reserve to use later.

Trump’s associates have tried to discredit her testimony that he angrily tried to grab the wheel of his vehicle but apparently that story had been circulating among secret service agents for over a year.

Then-President Donald Trump angrily demanded to go to the US Capitol on January 6, 2021, and berated his protective detail when he didn’t get his way, according to two Secret Service sources who say they heard about the incident from multiple agents, including the driver of the presidential SUV where it occurred.

The sources tell CNN that stories circulated about the incident – including details that are similar to how former White House aide Cassidy Hutchinson described it to the House select committee investigating January 6 – in the months immediately afterward the US Capitol attack and before she testified this week.

While the details from those who heard the accounts differ, the Secret Service sources say they were told an angry confrontation did occur. And their accounts align with significant parts of Hutchinson’s testimony, which has been attacked as hearsay by Trump and his allies who also have tried to discredit her overall testimony.

The question of the day is whether Pat Cipollone, the White House counsel during the last days of the Trump administration, will testify before the committee. He was featured a lot in Hutchinson’s testimony and could provide valuable information. He has been subpoenaed. While he has spoken to the committee informally before, he has declined to testify publicly.

“Our committee is certain that Donald Trump does not want Mr. Cipollone to testify here. Indeed our evidence shows that Mr. Cipollone and his office tried to do what was right. They tried to stop a number of President Trump’s plans for January 6th. Today and in our coming hearings you will hear testimony from other Trump White House staff explaining what Mr. Cipollone said and did including on January 6th,” [Cheney] said on June 21 in the panel’s fourth hearing. “But we think the American people deserve to hear from Mr. Cipollone personally.”

Cipollone has returned to the law firm where he is a partner. You would think that if a young low-level staffer like Hutchinson, who has a lot to lose in terms of future career prospects in government, had the guts to defy the pressure on her to not give testimony, someone like Cipollone, who has a secure and lucrative career, would find it easier to do so. But that is not how it works. It is the higher ups who are constantly eying future jobs who put their fingers to the wind to see who and what might be beneficial to them before deciding what to do.