Cassidy Hutchinson, a former White House aide who was the January 6 committee’s star witness during a surprise hearing held on Tuesday, reportedly fabricated pieces of her testimony about conversations she had with former White House counsel Pat Cipollone.
During her testimony, Hutchinson claimed that Cipollone told her to tell her boss, Chief of Staff Mark Meadows, that former President Donald Trump should not go to the Capitol on January 6.
Hutchinson testified that Cipollone said, “We’re going to get charged with every crime imaginable,” if Trump went to the Capitol.
The committee’s vice-chair, Rep. Liz Cheney (R-WY), doubled down on her calls to get Cipollone to testify before the committee due to Hutchinson’s testimony.
“As we heard yesterday, WH counsel Pat Cippollone had significant concerns re. Trump’s Jan 6 activities,” Cheney tweeted on Wednesday. “It’s time for Mr. Cippollone to testify on the record. Any concerns he has about the institutional interests of his prior office are outweighed by the need for his testimony.”
However, Cipollone was reportedly not at the White House on the morning of January 6, according to Human Events Senior Editor Jack Posobiec.
“Multiple sources including one who was at the WH on Jan 6 tell me Cipollone was not there in the am when Hutchinson testified she spoke with him,” Posobiec tweeted on Wednesday evening.
The January 6 Committee “is aware of this discrepancy,” according to Posobiec, and “are ignoring media inquiries about it.”
“Seems she made up the entire conversation,” Posobiec added.
The controversy around Hutchinson’s claims about the alleged conversation with Cipollone is the latest blow to her testimony and the January 6 committee’s credibility.
Posobiec’s reporting comes one day after a former Trump White House lawyer disputed Hutchinson’s testimony about a handwritten statement she allegedly wrote on January 6.
Hutchinson testified that she wrote a statement for Trump to release during the Capitol riot. However, former White House lawyer Eric Herschmann insisted that he wrote the handwritten note presented to the committee during Hutchinson’s testimony.
“The handwritten note that Cassidy Hutchinson testified was written by her was in fact written by Eric Herschmann on January 6, 2021,” Herschmann’s spokesperson said.
Parts of Hutchinson’s testimony are also at odds with members of the U.S. Secret Service. The most sensationalized aspect of her testimony was that Trump allegedly tried to take control of the presidential SUV’s steering wheel and shouted expletives at Secret Service agents when they prevented him from doing so.
However, shortly after Hutchinson’s testimony, two Secret Service agents in the SUV that day reportedly confirmed their intent to make statements under oath that would contradict Hutchinson’s story.