The driver, the report said, indicated that Mr. Trump was angrier than described by Mr. Engel in either interview, but “testified that he did not recall seeing what President Trump was doing and did not recall whether there was movement.”
Two other witnesses, a Washington, D.C., police officer and a Secret Service agent, confirmed that Mr. Trump was furious about the decision not to take him to the Capitol. The committee used Ms. Hutchinson’s testimony to break open accounts from others about how eager Mr. Trump was to join his supporters.
In a transcript of one of her interviews with the committee, Ms. Hutchinson said that her initial lawyer, Stefan Passantino, suggested that she could tell the panel that she “can’t recall” information, including in relation to the story about Mr. Ornato and the car, despite her having clear recollections. Mr. Passantino has denied coaching her to be uncooperative or trying to influence her testimony.
Much of what Ms. Hutchinson said about Mr. Trump and activities of her boss, Mark Meadows, the White House chief of staff, has been corroborated by others. In a memoir published in 2021, Mr. Meadows claimed that Mr. Trump had not been serious about going to the Capitol, an assertion contradicted by a mass of evidence uncovered by the committee’s investigation.
In some instances, other witnesses have contradicted her.
In her public testimony in June, she described writing a note that Mr. Meadows dictated to her that was supposed to be released as a statement from Mr. Trump urging the rioters to leave. She said she recognized her handwriting as the note was shown. But another person working in the White House, Eric Herschmann, said that he had written it.
In the report, the authorship of the note is not resolved. The report says that the handwriting was “somewhat” messy and that Mr. Meadows placed the note on her desk, with one word — “illegally” — crossed out.
Maggie Haberman
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