Mueller prosecutor sees DOJ opportunity in Hutchinson testimony

Daniel Chaitin

June 30, 10:49 PM July 01, 12:35 AM

The Justice Department should be working to corroborate the testimony of Cassidy Hutchinson, a onetime aide to former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows, who appeared before the Jan. 6 committee this week, according to a top prosecutor in Robert Mueller's special counsel investigation.

Andrew Weissmann, a former Justice Department official and FBI general counsel, said there is "an absolute gold mine of witnesses" prosecutors could pursue going off Hutchinson's blockbuster testimony on Tuesday about former President Donald Trump's actions leading up to and the day of the Capitol riot. This included testimony that indicated Trump was aware people in the crowd were armed when he encouraged them to head to the Capitol during a speech on the Ellipse.

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"I would think after yesterday’s testimony — if the department did not know about that beforehand, and shame on them if they did not — but they should be pressing for all of the corroboration to make sure that what Ms. Hutchinson said is accurate and truthful and to obtain as much corroboration as possible," Weissmann said during an appearance Wednesday on MSNBC's Deadline: White House.

Since the hearing on Tuesday, Hutchinson's testimony has come under increasing scrutiny and faced some pushback. An area of significant focus has been the story of a wild presidential SUV ride on the day of the Capitol riot. Hutchinson testified that she heard Trump grabbed at the steering wheel and used his free hand to "lunge" at the neck of his head of security when told on Jan. 6 after his speech on the Ellipse that they could not head to the Capitol. Trump reacted on Truth Social, calling it a "fake story," and the Secret Service put out a statement saying it has "been cooperating fully with the select committee since its inception in spring of 2021 and we will continue to do so by responding formally and on the record to the committee regarding new allegations that surfaced in today’s testimony."

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Federal agents issued a flurry of grand jury subpoenas across multiple states last week, per the New York Times, as part of a criminal investigation of a plan by Trump and his allies to create slates of alternate electors to prevent Joe Biden from becoming president. Before this activity, Attorney General Merrick Garland said he and federal prosecutors were keeping tabs on the summer hearings held by the Jan. 6 committee.

Weissmann said the agency could crank up the "urgency" by putting Secret Service officials and former White House counsel Pat Cipollone, whom the Jan. 6 committee just subpoenaed, before a grand jury to testify, if it has not already. Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco was "trained by Robert Mueller at the FBI and is used to acting quickly and I think would be pressing that," as would Marshall Miller, the principal associate deputy attorney general, Weissmann said.