An aide to House Speaker Mike Johnson stepped in to advise Republicans against issuing a subpoena to former White House aide Cassidy Hutchinson for fear that it might expose sexual texts lawmakers sent her, according to The Washington Post.
Hutchinson, a former Trump loyalist who worked for his chief of staff, gave sensational evidence to the congressional committee on the January 6 riot. She testified that Trump wanted to join his supporters marching on the Capitol, and she claimed that he believed – but did not care – that some of them were armed.
Now Republicans are trying to establish their own counter-narrative about the riot with a new investigation.
They had discussed calling Hutchinson to testify again but, according to The Post, were advised not to by an aide to the Speaker.
Republican Rep. Barry Loudermilk had suggested in public that a subpoena be issued for Hutchinson. However, an aide to Johnson warned Loudermilk’s staff that several colleagues had shared concerns that “sexual texts from members who were trying to engage in sexual favors” with Hutchinson could be shared publicly, correspondence from the time reveals, according to the paper. It was not immediately clear who those lawmakers supposedly are or what was in the alleged text messages.
The paper did not review the reportedly sexual texts and didn’t identify the senders or whether Hutchinson responded.
Johnson aides also told Loudermilk and his staff that subpoenaing Hutchinson and asking her to testify under oath could possibly embarrass the Trump White House as it would hand her an opportunity to tell her story once again, two people at the meeting told The Post.
Hutchinson had not commented publicly on the latest claims at the time of writing.
Johnson brought the Republicans’ investigation back to life this week as President Donald Trump and his allies in Congress seek revenge against perceived political enemies, such as those who investigated the attack on the Capitol.
Hutchinson testified in a 2022 hearing that Trump wanted to go to the Congressional complex himself alongside thousands of supporters he had riled up in a speech from the Ellipse, outside the White House, in which he falsely claimed he had been cheated out of victory in the November 2020 election.
The former aide to then-Trump Chief of Staff Mark Meadows testified that Trump’s personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani said on 2 January 2021 that Trump and his associates had plans for January 6. When she told Meadows, she said he “didn’t look up from his phone and said something to the effect of … ‘things might get real, real bad’.”
Hutchinson testified that Trump wanted security checkpoints downgraded despite knowing that some in the crowd were armed, including with assault-style rifles. She said she heard Trump say “something to the effect of ‘I don’t f***ing care that they have weapons. They’re not here to hurt me’.”
When White House counsel Pat Cipollone urged Meadows to get Trump to take action as the crowd grew louder, including calls for the hanging of Vice President Mike Pence, Hutchinson said Meadows noted that Trump thought Pence “deserves it” and that the president “doesn’t think they’re doing anything wrong.”
She said that Trump wanted to go to the Capitol after his speech but that Secret Service agent Robert Engel said it wouldn’t be safe. Hutchinson said that Deputy Chief of Staff Tony Ornato said that Trump grew irate, insisting he go to the Capitol, even going so far as to lunge for the wheel of the presidential vehicle and to try to grab Engel by the throat.
Loudermilk led a Republican investigation into the January 6 attack in the last Congress, including the probe of the attack headed by Democratic Mississippi Rep. Bennie Thompson and then-Wyoming Republican Rep. Liz Cheney.
Earlier this month, Loudermilk told CNN that Johnson had given the green light to the investigation from the previous Congress being brought back as a new panel.
“House Republicans are proud of our work exposing the false narratives peddled by the politically motivated Jan. 6 Select Committee, but there’s more to be done,” the speaker wrote on X on 22 January. “We’re establishing a Select Subcommittee chaired by @RepLoudermilk to continue our efforts to uncover the full truth.”
Loudermilk was reportedly considering handing Hutchinson a subpoena for testimony and electronic communications because he thought she could provide new information, two people involved in the investigation told The Post. The information he sought was about Cheney, who had organized Hutchinson’s testimony.
Critics have attacked the Republican investigation as an attempt by Trump and his allies to rewrite the history of what happened during the Capitol attack and to seek revenge against those who blamed the president for inciting the violence from his supporters on that day.
Hutchinson’s attorney, Bill Jordan, told The Post that she cooperated voluntarily with the investigation, criticizing the interim report issued by Loudermilk in December, which stated that Cheney had been “secretly communicating with Hutchinson without Hutchinson’s attorney’s knowledge.”
“Ms. Hutchinson has testified truthfully and stands behind every word despite the efforts of men in powerful positions to attack her,” Jordan told The Post.
Last month, Cheney said in a statement that Loudermilk’s report was a “malicious and cowardly assault on the truth.”
Loudermilk told reporters on Monday that Trump has asked him to “continue the investigation and continue to expose the truth.”
“I know President Trump is 100 percent behind it,” he added.
In one of his final acts in office, former President Joe Biden issued preemptive pardons for Cheney, the other members of the original January 6 committee, and some staff to protect them from reprisals from the incoming Trump administration. Hutchinson didn’t receive a pardon.
