If the testimony given to the Committee investigating the events of January 6, 2021 at the Capitol in Washington by Cassidy Hutchinson are accurate, then former President Donald Trump is in big trouble.
According to Hutchinson, who worked for Trump’s Chief of Staff Mark Meadows, Trump allegedly attacked secret agents on that day because they refused to take him to the Capitol. She also says he knew some of the protestors were armed; that he may have tampered with other witnesses, and that he had some connection with the Proud Boys.
The problem is – and this is not made apparent in most of the media reports that people will have seen here – is that Hutchinson’s claims regarding Trump are all second hand; things that she claims other people including another former aide Tony Ornato said that Trump had said.
It is also the case that at least two of the secret agents who were alleged to have been assaulted have led it be known that they will testify to the effect that Trump did not lunge at them or assault them while they were in a vehicle which, according to Hutchinson, he was demanding would take him to the Capitol.
A reporter for the Washington Post responded by publishing claims that the two agents were simply “yes men” for Trump and “very close to him.” This is typical of the level of invective and smearing of witnesses that have characterised the attempt to not only discredit Trump and his former top aides, but to damage the Republican party itself at a time when the current Biden administration is seemingly in freefall.
A cross section of polls taken on June shows that the Republicans have a clear lead across most polls, and that they are on course to win control of Congress as well as most of the Governorships. Even more depressing for the Democrats is that Trump, in the midst of all of the allegations surrounding January 6, 2021 remains more popular than Biden, Harris or Pelosi.
The hearings into the events of January 6th continue.