Former federal prosecutor: Cassidy Hutchinson testimony shows Trump committed treason

Max Thornberry

July 01, 08:57 AM July 01, 08:57 AM

A veteran federal prosecutor said Tuesday’s shocking testimony at the Jan. 6 committee’s public hearing shows former President Donald Trump is guilty of treason.

Of the several revelations Cassidy Hutchinson, a top aide to former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows, testified to under oath earlier this week was that Trump insisted armed supporters be let into his rally on Jan. 6. Trump later told those same supporters to march to the Capitol and make their displeasure with Vice President Mike Pence, who was certifying the Electoral College votes, known.

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"Treason is defined in the federal law as whoever, owing an allegiance to the United States, levies war against them, the United States, is guilty of treason,” Glenn Kirschner, a former federal prosecutor, told Dean Obeidallah on a radio show this week. “And what Donald Trump was, in a very real sense, levy war, and we now know that his warriors were armed. He knew that, and he launched an attack that he wanted to lead himself on the U.S. Capitol, on the democratic process, on the certification of the rightful win of a president.”

Hutchinson described a scene on Jan. 6, before the then-president’s speech on the White House Ellipse, in which he riled up a crowd that later mobbed the Capitol, on Tuesday. The former aide said Trump was furious the crowd for his speech wasn’t larger and that some supporters were being kept off the grounds because they were armed.

“Take the f***ing mags away,” Hutchinson recounted Trump as saying at the rally, referring to the magnetometers set up outside the rally grounds to prevent people with weapons from entering. “They’re not here to hurt me. Let them in. Let my people in. They can march to the Capitol after the rally is over.”

Some of Hutchinson’s testimony has come under scrutiny, including a vivid retelling of an SUV ride in which Hutchinson was told the president tried to grab the steering wheel and “lunged” at a Secret Service agent.

There is also conflicting evidence about whether she wrote a note for Trump to release while his supporters were storming the Capitol. A spokesperson for former White House attorney Eric Herschmann claimed Hutchinson didn’t write the memo — Herschmann did.

Despite some possible holes in Hutchinson’s testimony, Kirschner focused on her direct relaying of the account before the rally, arguing that Trump willfully whipped up the crowd to incite a riot and interrupt the vote certification.

“You know, he certainly is on the hook for obstructing the official proceeding, the certification of Biden’s win,” Kirschner said. “He's on the hook for a conspiracy to defraud or commit offenses against the United States, inciting a riot, inciting an insurrection, seditious conspiracy, treason.”

Kirschner added that he thinks Trump’s action constituted “assaulting or impeding” a government official, an 8-year felony. And if prosecutors can link Trump to telling supporters, armed with weapons, to impede a government official, it would be a 20-year felony.

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“Again, Dean, you can only confine a man for but one life,” Kirschner said. “So how many of these charges you want to stack up? It doesn't really matter. Donald Trump just needs to be indicted.”

The Jan. 6 committee does not have the power to issue indictments, and there has been some confusion about whether it will offer “criminal referrals” to the Department of Justice. The DOJ is conducting its own investigation into the Jan. 6 riot at the Capitol.