The United States Secret Service will once again engage with the January 6 committee after White House Cassidy Hutchinson testified on Tuesday, according to spokesperson Anthony Guglielmi. The committee received second-hand testimonies of agents Anthony Ornato and Robert Engel.
The Secret Service, an agency tasked with providing strategic protection to top-ranking officials, said that it will speak to the Jan 6 committee “regarding the new allegations surfaced in today’s (session six) testimony.
Also Read: Trump threw his lunch, and tantrums in the White House: Former aide Hutchinson
The agency said that its testimony to the House panel will be “on the record” as it has been “since its inception in spring 2021”, according to reports from CBS News.
What did Cassidy Hutchinson say?
Hutchinson, in a second-hand testimony, said that former US President Donald Trump was told by his security details that he could not visit the Capitol on January 6, 2021. Trump then reportedly lunged at Ornato and said, “I’m the f**king President. Take me up to the Capitol now”.
How did the Secret Service agents respond?
The agent who was driving the presidential SUV, and Trump security official Anthony Ornato are willing to testify under oath that no agent was assaulted and Trump never lunged for the steering wheel, a person familiar with the matter said, according to reports from news agency Associated Press.
However, a source told CBS that Engel and Ornato did not dispute that the former President was irate or that he wanted to visit the US Capitol complex on January 6.
Ornato, Assistant Director of the US Secret Service, resigned on Monday, marking a major departure two months after explosive testimony from a former White House aide who claimed Ornato told her then-President Donald Trump was enraged when he learned his security team would not take him to the US Capitol on January 6, 2021.
Also Read: Can Secret Service agents Anthony Ornato, Robert Engel be called to testify
Has the Secret Service cooperated with the January 6 committee so far?
Yes. Multiple officials from the Secret Service have already given testimony to the January 6 committee so far. The committee is currently in possession of dozens of hours of footage. These recordings were not used in Tuesday’s hearing.
Robert Engel and Anthony Oranto have also spoken to the House Select Committee, CBS News reported.