Washington
CNN
—
Shortly after Joe Biden was elected in the 2020 election, then-White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows told his aide Cassidy Hutchinson that President Donald Trump knew he had lost, but the results from the House Select Committee investigating the Jan. 6 riots.
A transcript of an interview with the committee that took place after she publicly testified on September 14, 2022, was released by the panel on Thursday. It details a post-election conversation Hutchinson described, in which multiple people said Trump admitted he lost, but that he didn’t want to.
Hutchinson testified that Meadows told her on November 18, 2020, that Trump “almost admitted he lost.”
Meadows told Hutchinson that day about Trump. conversation.
Hutchinson also testified that in late December 2020, Meadows told the committee that Meadows had told her that she would be upset whenever Trump mentioned the transition, saying something to the effect of: . Don’t talk to him about the post-White House without him getting upset that we didn’t win. ”
“Later in the interview, Hutchinson told the commission that he spoke to Meadows shortly after a phone call with Georgia officials on January 2, 2021. He pressured them to help reverse the election results.”
“He said something to the effect of ‘He knows it’s over.’ But we keep trying. He may not have lost. I want to do this for him,” Hutchinson said, recounting what Meadows told her about Trump.
In a Sept. 15 deposition, Hutchinson repeated her testimony that she had heard about Trump fighting his security details on Jan. 6, according to another deposition record. .
Hutchinson faced an onslaught of criticism and backlash from Trump supporters after she revealed a story that Trump ran into the driver of the presidential car on Jan. 6, 2021. to the US Capitol. At that hearing, she said she heard her story from Tony Ornato, who was serving as the White House Deputy Chief of Staff at the time.
But after her hearing and avalanche of opposition, Hutchinson said there was “no doubt” about her previous testimony.
“There is no doubt about the conversation I had with Mr. Ornato on January 6. According to the transcript released on Thursday, there is no doubt about how I relayed the story privately and publicly. there is no.
She also shared that Ornato made “sarcastic offhand remarks” about the story on at least two occasions, on January 19 and April 16, after Ornato first spoke, according to the transcript.
“There are no doubts about the January 19th and April 16th instances of the conversation,” Hutchinson added.
In an April 16 phone call, Hutchinson described a phone conversation with Commission investigators that Ornato made the following comments: The president may have tried to kill – he didn’t say he would – the president may have tried to strangle you on January 6th.
Hutchinson admitted he did not disclose that Ornato was referring to the Jan. 6 incident, but said, “From the context of our call and the conversations we had while at the White House, it was clear that he I assumed you were referring to that incident.” There is no reason to believe he was referring to any other incident. ”
In June, Hutchinson publicly said Ornato told her about the altercation between the former president and his Secret Service chief when he was told he couldn’t go to the Capitol on January 6. testified to
The commission, in a summary report released Monday, was unable to get Ornato to corroborate Hutchinson’s testimony about the alleged altercation in the president’s SUV.
A commission summary said that both Hutchinson and a White House employee testified to the commission about Ornert’s conversation. I professed that I didn’t know.”