Shocking revelations on Trump before Senate Committee probing Jan 6 Capitol Hill Riots

By Ashok Nilakantan

New York, June 29 (SocialNews.XYZ) Shocking revelations that former US president Donald Trump coerced security personnel to remove "magnetometers" (devices that detect weapons) from CH and allow his protesters to move freely were made before the democratic Senate Special House Judiciary Committee probing the January 6 Capitol Hill riots.

He tried wrenching the steering will of his car at WH to go to Capitol Hill despite security advice that the mob was turning violent.

Cassidy Hutchinson, a former top aide to the final White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows, made this accusation before the senate saying her boss Meadows did nothing to handle it, but only sought pardon, which was denied in quick succession by Trump as false in his Truth Website.

The surprise hearing on Tuesday (June 27), of the special House committee investigating the January 6 attack enlivened the drama that preceded it, providing in meticulous detail of the most intimate picture yet of then President Donald J. Trump's actions as a mob was assaulting the Capitol in his name, reports the New York Times in its detailed coverage of the hearings on the net.

The almost Hollywood style testimony by Cassidy Hutchinson, a trusted longtime aide of Mark Meadows, the White House chief of staff, portrayed the president as almost unhinged with fury when his Secret Service detail told him he could not go to the Capitol as his supporters, many of them armed, descended on it.

Hutchinson said the former president was little concerned of the violence threat as advised by his secret service and instead said they were not targeting him. The ex-president reportedly sympathised with the armed mob which chanted for the execution of Vice President Mike Pence, who flatly refused his pleas to overturn the election as advised by the lawyer Rudy Guiliani. Cassidy said senior aides had tried in vain to persuade Trump to call off the mob, but he resisted for hours. Her testimony stunned everyone in the committee.

The accusations made against Trump

'They are not here to hurt me.' Trump thus encouraged an armed mob to go to Capitol Hill.

He wanted security officials to allow people milling outside the security perimeter into the space in Capitol Hill so the event would appear well attended. "They are not here to hurt me," he said, according to Ms. Hutchinson, who was within earshot of the president at the time.

Using a string of expletives, Trump, she testified, wanted the security features like magnetometers that detect concealed weapons removed.

She claimed the president was duly informed that his supporters were violent and had come armed with guns, knives, spears and flagpoles, and wearing body armor. Despite this, Trump encouraged them to go to the Capitol anyway, a detail that could prove legally problematic for him, says New York Times in its report. The ex President reportedly used the abusive term "f...k" devices five times and to remove them, allow the crowd to move freely.

Trump refused to call off the mob.

Responding to appeals from Pat Cipollone, the White House counsel, Meadows had said that former president Trump was not inclined to try to call off the mob, according to Hutchinson's account. "He doesn't want to do anything," Meadows told the White House lawyer when informed that violence was breaking out. Cipollone tried a second time, noting that the mob was chanting, "Hang Mike Pence."

"You heard him, Pat, he thinks Mike deserves it," Hutchinson said Meadows responded. "He doesn't think they are doing anything wrong."

Trump had bouts of fury

Prone to rage, Trump, as his attempts to get the election results overturned fell on deaf ears in his administration, he was angry at hearing on December 1 that Attorney General William P. Barr had publicly declared the Trump allegations of widespread voter fraud unfounded, Hutchinson said.

Trump slammed his lunch against a wall in his dining room in the White House, as she learned from the valet who cleaned up the broken China and ketchup dripping down the wall. "There were several times throughout my tenure with the chief of staff that I was aware of him either throwing dishes or flipping the tablecloth to let all the contents of the table go on to the floor and likely break or go everywhere," she said of the president.

Hutchinson said she had been told that on January 6, an irate Mr Trump, when informed he could not go to the Capitol to join his supporters, sought to wrench the steering wheel away from the Secret Service agent driving him. He continued to press to head there even after they returned to the White House, the NYT reported.

Two top Trump advisers sought pardons after January 6

Meadows and Rudolph W. Giuliani, the former New York City mayor and Trump's personal lawyer, both sought pardons from Mr. Trump before he left office in case they were implicated criminally in any events leading up to January 6 or the assault itself. As she closed her testimony, Hutchinson testified in no ambivalent terms. It was very clear that her former boss had joined Giuliani in asking for a pardon, neither were granted. Their interest was only in obtaining clemency as they were worried about the consequences from their efforts on the president's behalf.

Trump's cabinet weighed removing him after January 6

Trump's cabinet was deeply distressed by the assault on the Capitol and his encouragement of the mob and refusal to intervene. The committee was told they quietly discussed invoking the 25th Amendment to remove him from office. "The ignominious prospect of being the first president to be subject to the amendment was one of the reasons he agreed to record a video on January 7 committing to a peaceful transfer of power to the incoming president Joe Biden," the committee was told.

The probing panel suspects Trump is discouraging cooperation with its inquiry

Members of the committee are hoping that Hutchinson's willingness to come forward and provide such significant testimony will encourage others still holding back to do the same. "To that group of witnesses, if you've heard this testimony today and suddenly you remember things you couldn't previously recall, or there's some details you'd like to clarify, or you discovered some courage you had hidden away somewhere, our doors remain open," Representative Bennie Thompson, Democrat of Mississippi and chairman of the committee, said in the hearings which are being televised live to millions in the country.

Representative Liz Cheney, Republican of Wyoming and vice chairwoman of the committee, claimed the panel was in possession of information that Trump and his allies were making efforts to influence witnesses and, if this was true, the committee would be considering a strong response.

Cassidy Hutchinson's lawyers furnished a statement soon after her deposition before the committee. "Ms. Hutchinson is justifiably proud of her service to the country as a special assistant to the president. While she did not seek out the attention accompanying her testimony today, she believes that it was her duty and responsibility to provide the committee with her truthful and candid observations of the events surrounding Jan. 6. Ms. Hutchinson believes that Jan. 6 was a horrific day for the country, and it is vital to the future of our democracy that it not be repeated," the statement said.

NYT said Donald J. Trump posted a dozen messages on his social media website attacking Cassidy Hutchinson and denying her most "explosive testimony". Trump said he never complained about the crowd size on January 6, never claimed that Vice President Pence deserved to be hanged and never tried to grab the steering wheel when the Secret Service allegedly refused to drive him to the Capitol after his rally speech.

"Her fake story that I tried to grab the steering wheel of the White House limousine in order to steer it to the Capitol building is sick and fraudulent, very much like the unselect committee itself," Mr. Trump wrote on his Truth Social website.

Source: IANS