Donald Trump.Photo: Brandon Bell/Getty
Amid the ongoing hearings concerning theJan. 6, 2021, Capitol riots, at least one witness told the bipartisan committee investigating the riots that allies of former PresidentDonald Trumpreached out to them, seemingly in an attempt to influence their testimony.
Hutchinson, a former top aide to Trumps chief of staff,Mark Meadows, testified Tuesday,offering a number of striking new revelationsabout how the day unfolded.
One of the messages, which is partially redacted, reads: “[A person] let me know you have your deposition tomorrow. He wants me to let you know that he’s thinking about you. He knows you’re loyal, and you’re going to do the right thing when you go in for your deposition.”
“What they said to me is as long as I continue to be a team player, they know I’m on the right team,” the message read. “I’m doing the right thing. I’m protecting who I need to protect, you know, I’ll continue to stay in good graces in Trump World. And they have reminded me a couple of times that Trump does read transcripts.”
Committee Vice ChairLiz Cheney, a Republican, said that the messages raise “significant concern,” adding: “I think most Americans know that attempting to influence witnesses to testify untruthfully presents very serious issues.”
Rep. Jamie Raskin, who sits on the select committee,toldThe Washington Post, “The vice chair released two different episodes of potential witness tampering, anonymously, for obvious reasons. We don’t want further intimidation of the same people.”
He added, “we want this to be a warning to the people who are doing it that they can’t do it. It is a crime and this committee is taking it very seriously.”
In an interview with ABC News Thursday, Cheney said the committeemay make a criminal referralto the Justice Department, recommending that anyone who tried to influence witness testimony be prosecuted.
Trump himself has allegedly demanded “loyalty” from those in his inner circle in the past. In hisexplosive 2018 memoir, former FBI Director James Comey writes that he had multiple phone and in-person meetings with Trump — most of them at the president’s request. In one private dinner, Comey writes that the president demanded his loyalty, saying: “I need loyalty. I expect loyalty.”
In his book,Comey likens Trump to the Mafia mobstershe once prosecuted, describing him as someone who is “unethical, and untethered to truth and institutional values,” as well as “ego driven … about personal loyalty.”
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Hutchinson further testified that Trump too matters into his own hands when he was told he couldn’t travel to the Capitol following his speech, and that he allegedly reached for the steering wheel with one hand and"for the clavicle" of his lead Secret Service agentwith another.
source: people.com
