U.S. Representative Zoe Lofgren (D-CA) speaks during the second public hearing of the U.S. House Select Committee to Investigate the January 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol, at U.S. Capitol. Capitol, in Washington, USA June 13, 2022.
Jonathan Ernst | Reuters
United States Secret Service agents at the center of an explosive charge about the President at that time Donald TrumpAccording to a member of House committee investigating riots.
“Some officers said they would come and speak under oath,” select committee member Zoe Lofgren, D-Calif., told reporters Thursday night after the panel. latest public hearing.
“They didn’t come in and they’ve been keeping private counsel until recently, which is unusual but they have the right to do it,” Lofgren said.
She specified that those officers were Tony Ornato, then a top Trump aide who also served as a Secret Service agent, and Robert Engel, Trump’s former head of security detail. The driver of the car that brought Trump back to the White House after the rally before the Capitol riots also had his own counsel, Lofgren said.
These officials were quoted by former White House official Cassidy Hutchinson in public sworn testimony before the selection committee last month.
Hutchinson described hearing from Ornato on January 6, 2021, that Trump rushed Engel inside the president’s car after being told the Secret Service would not take him to the Capitol following his rally. he.
“Tony describes him as an angry man,” she testified, adding that Trump apparently said something like, ‘I’m the effective president, get me to the Capitol now! “
Trump grabbed the wheel of that car, Hutchinson said Ornato told her, at which point Engel grabbed Trump’s arm and told him to stop. Trump “later used his free hand to lunge at Bobby Engel,” Hutchinson testified.
She noted that Engel was in the room when Ornato forwarded the account, and he did not deny it at the time and has not done so since.
Former US President Donald Trump acknowledges people as he boards his SUV outside Trump Tower in New York, March 9, 2021.
Carlo Allegri | Reuters
However, Trump quickly denied Hutchinson’s testimony, calling it “fake” and claiming it would be impossible with the wheel.
Unnamed sources associated with the Secret Service later cast doubt on Hutchinson’s testimony through statements to multiple reporters.
NBC News, citing a source close to the agency, reported that Engel and the driver of the vehicle were prepared to testify under oath that Trump never got his hands on the wheel. CNN reported that another Secret Service official said that Ornato denied telling Hutchinson that Trump was at the wheel or because of Engel.
Hutchinson’s attorney, Jody Hunt, responded on Twitter that his client “tested, sworn and recounted what she was told. Those with knowledge of this incident should also be sworn in. .”
So far, they have not done so, according to Lofgren.
In a statement Friday, Secret Service Director James Murray did not address the controversy surrounding his agency’s removal of contact or its involvement in the January 6 events. But he did. reiterated his commitment to support the work of the selection committee and said he has directed the Secret Service agent “to cooperate fully and completely.”
The agency is coordinating dates and times to meet with investigators “to continue the investigation,” Murray added.
The committee member’s latest comments on the investigation come after the panel’s eighth public hearing on the initial findings from the year-long investigation into the May 6 riots. 1, when a violent mob of Trump supporters stormed the Capitol and prevented Congress from confirming President Joe Biden’s election victory. .
The hearing focused on Trump’s inaction for more than three hours during the riot, even as his staffers, allies and family members begged him to call the crowd.
Committee members argued that Trump’s refusal to stop the riots was not merely “disarming” but the deliberate choice of a president who refused to admit he had lost the election and determined to stop or disrupt the transfer of power.
The scheduled hearing also revealed further testimony from witnesses who described a “fiery argument” in which a Trump “hater” got involved after being told he would not be charged. taken to the Capitol that day.
The committee said it will hold more hearings in September as it continues to gather evidence.
The hearing also came hours after NBC News and other media revealed that the Department of Homeland Security’s internal watchdog had open a criminal investigation into the erasure of Secret Service communications from around the time of the riots.
The Secret Service said some data was lost after a “system migration” that began in January 2021 but was planned in advance.
The selection committee said Wednesday that the Secret Service’s removal “may represent a violation of the Federal Records Act.”
