Four takeaways from the sixth day of Jan. 6 U.S. Capitol riot hearings
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[June 29, 2022]
By Moira Warburton
WASHINGTON (Reuters) -The sixth day of
congressional hearings into the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol
featured Cassidy Hutchinson, a top aide to then-President Donald Trump's
chief of staff Mark Meadows.
Hutchinson's testimony focused on what Meadows and Trump knew about the
attack in the days before and on Jan. 6, informed by her close working
proximity to both men. Here are some takeaways from the hearing:
TRUMP RALLY ATTENDEES WERE ARMED
Many Republicans - including Trump and Republican Representative Louie
Gohmert - have said the rioters were not armed, but Hutchinson's
testimony contradicted this claim. She testified that both Meadows and
Trump knew many in the crowd were armed with AR-15s, handguns, brass
knuckles and batons and equipped with body armor.
Trump was irate that many rally attendees were having to go through
metal detectors, a standard security procedure for people near the
president, because it gave the appearance of fewer people attending the
rally.
![](http://archives.lincolndailynews.com/2017/Jul/22/images/ads/current/rohlfs_lda_072017.png)
"They're not here to hurt me," Hutchinson recalled Trump as saying. "Let
them in, let my people in. They can march to the Capitol after the
rally's over."
WHITE HOUSE LAWYERS HAD LEGAL CONCERNS ABOUT JAN. 6
Hutchinson testified that White House lawyer Pat Cipollone told her on
Jan. 3, 2021, that it would be "legally a terrible idea" for Trump to go
to the Capitol on Jan. 6.
"He said to me, 'We need to make sure that this doesn't happen,"
Hutchinson testified. "'We have serious legal concerns if we go up to
the Capitol that day.'"
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![](../images/062922PIX/news_u45.jpg)
An image of former Acting U.S. Deputy Attorney General Richard
Donoghue is displayed during a public hearing of the U.S. House
Select Committee investigating the January 6 Attack on the U.S.
Capitol, at the Capitol, in Washington, U.S., June 28, 2022. Shawn
Thew/Pool via REUTERS
![](http://archives.lincolndailynews.com/2022/Jun/29/images/ads/current/graue_sda_042021.png)
TRUMP GRABBED STEERING WHEEL OF PRESIDENTIAL LIMO
Trump was so furious that the Secret Service and White House lawyers
were planning to return him to the White House rather than allow him
to go to the Capitol on Jan. 6 that he tried to grab the steering
wheel from the back seat of the presidential limo, Hutchinson said.
"'I'm the effing president, take me to the Capitol now,'" Hutchinson
testified Trump said.
Trump denied that assertion in a statement posted on Truth Social,
his social media app."Her Fake story that I tried to grab the
steering wheel of the White House Limousine in order to steer it to
the Capitol Building is 'sick' and fraudulent," he wrote and denied
her testimony that he threw food and plates against the wall on
several occasions.
TRUMP THREW LUNCH AT WALL AFTER BARR INTERVIEW
According to video testimony shown on Tuesday by the committee from
Kayleigh McEnany, Trump's White House press secretary at the time,
Trump was so enraged by then-Attorney General Bill Barr's interview
with the Associated Press saying there was no evidence of election
fraud that Trump threw his lunch at the wall, breaking a porcelain
dish and leaving ketchup dripping down the wall.
"There were several times throughout my tenure with the chief of
staff that I was aware of him either throwing dishes or flipping the
tablecloth to let all the contents of the table go onto the floor
and likely break or go everywhere," Hutchinson told the committee.
(Reporting by Moira Warburton, Richard Cowan, Rose Horowitch and
Doina Chiacu in Washington; Editing by Scott Malone and Howard
Goller)
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