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June 29, 2022

A Jan 6 witness ludicrously claims Trump tried to choke his Secret Service agent

By Andrea Widburg

The headlines were ominous and the leftist gloating on Facebook was disturbing: It seemed as if the January 6 Committee finally had its smoking gun in the form of an attractive, mid-20s woman named Cassidy Hutchinson. The big excitement came when she recounted a wild tale about President Trump, desperate to get to the Capitol, trying to choke his Secret Service agent as they wrestled for control of Trump’s car,.Outside of the kangaroo court, though, actual facts indicate that nothing she said actually happened.

The media was in a frenzy of excitement over Hutchinson’s testimony. Among other things, she testified that, when the Secret Service informed Trump that there were armed people with everything from rifles to bear spray at the Stop the Steal rally, and asked to limit the crowd, Trump pushed back. “I don’t f------ care that they have weapons. They’re not here to hurt me.”

But the real bombshell was some hearsay Hutchinson offered. She claimed she learned the following from Tony Ornato, the deputy White House chief of staff for operations:

When Trump was told it was not safe to go [to the Capitol] — the riot was already under way — he was quoted saying words to the effect of, “I’m the f- - -ing president, take me up the Capitol now.” Then he had reached up to the front of the vehicle to try to grab the steering wheel. Robert Engel, the head of Trump’s security detail, grabbed his arm and said, “Sir, you need to take your hand off the steering wheel. We’re going back to the West Wing. We’re not going to the Capitol.” With his free hand, Trump “lunged” at Engel and Ornato gestured toward his clavicles, suggesting Trump went for Engel’s throat.

There was more, of course, all sorts of gossip and tittle-tattle. But that bit about Trump turning into a wild man and trying to beat his way through the Secret Service agents in the car to grab the steering wheel and take control was the biggie. My Facebook page, on which I have a lot of  “friends” from my past life in Democrat enclaves, exploded with glee, with many claiming Hutchinson was a new American heroine.

What all these leftists (in the media and out) forgot is that a kangaroo court doesn’t get to the truth. It is, instead, a forum for promoting lies. After all, in a court of law, Hutchinson would never have been allowed to get away with quoting all sorts of unnamed people in the office or recounting the narrative about a frenzied Trump fighting for control of his armored car. Every bit of it (and most of the other things she testified to) is hearsay and inadmissible.

Image: Cassidy Hutchinson. Twitter screen grab.

There’s good reason for hearsay’s inadmissibility: hearsay is inherently unreliable. Subject to specific exceptions, in a proper proceeding, one hedged about with due process protections, unless it comes from the horse’s mouth, it’s kept out lest it prejudice the defendant—and Trump is a defendant here, despite his being denied any opportunity to cross-examine witnesses or present his case.

In this case, Trump’s story is manifestly true and Hutchinson’s hearsay version a lie. A single illustration of the vehicle in which Trump drives proves that fact. There is no way he could get to the steering wheel because the driver is isolated from the passengers:

Moreover, after claiming for years that Trump was a barely mobile blob of fat, it’s pretty hard to believe Democrats now claiming he turned into a Berserker, possessed of manic strength. Also, the claim about the armed mob is a joke, too, given that of all the charges the DOJ has managed to pull together against the people who wandered through the Capitol after masked men pulled down the “no trespassing” signs and Capitol Police held the door opens, not a single one of the alleged attackers were armed.

You don’t just need logic to discount Hutchinson’s laughable claims. There’s going to be direct, non-hearsay evidence, too. Both Bobby Engel, who was the lead Secret Service agent protecting Trump, and the driver of the car in which Trump traveled are ready to testify under oath that none of Hutchinson’s wild, hearsay claims are true. Trump, too, pointed out how ridiculous her claims were, along with saying that her reputation for being a “phony” and “leaker” led him to refuse to have her come to Mar-a-Lago after he left the White House, a statement that may well explain her incredible vindictiveness.

There’s a legal adage, Falsus in uno, falsus in omnibus, that means that a person who is false in one thing is presumed to be false in everything. Cassidy is a very young woman, which almost certainly means she was a lowly flunky, and she’s clearly excited to get her 15 minutes of fame repeating unreliable gossip. What she really deserves, though, is to be ignored into oblivion.

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