A federal grand jury in Washington on Tuesday declined to return an indictment against former White House aide Cassidy Hutchinson, rejecting a Justice Department request to charge her over testimony she gave to a House committee about President Donald Trump’s conduct on Jan. 6, 2021, The Associated Press reported, citing two people familiar with the matter.4,6
The two people spoke to the AP on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to publicly discuss the case. The decision is the latest setback in the Justice Department’s efforts to charge perceived adversaries of the Republican president. Details of prosecutors’ allegations against Hutchinson were not immediately clear, but Republican lawmakers had accused her of lying under oath in her 2022 testimony about Trump’s behavior on Jan. 6, when a mob of his supporters stormed the Capitol to halt the congressional certification of his election loss to Democrat Joe Biden.4,6
The Hill, which said the rejection came from a federal grand jury in Washington, D.C., reported that Justice Department attorney Neville Hedley told U.S. Magistrate Judge Zia Faruqui about the grand jury’s action.1
Hutchinson’s testimony, given at a surprise hearing announced just 24 hours earlier, was seen at the time as particularly powerful because of her proximity to power as special assistant to Mark Meadows, Trump’s chief of staff. She described an angry, defiant president who was trying to let armed protesters avoid security screenings at a rally that morning to protest his 2020 election defeat, and who later grabbed at the steering wheel of the presidential SUV when the Secret Service refused to let him go to the Capitol. As the events at the Capitol spiraled toward violence, with the crowd chanting “Hang Mike Pence,” she testified that Trump declined to intervene.4,6
Trump at the time denied much of what Hutchinson said, posting on his social media platform, Truth Social. He called her a “total phony” and “bad news.” Hutchinson acknowledged during her testimony that the account of the altercation inside the presidential SUV was secondhand, relaying what she had heard from a White House security official, and that she did not have firsthand knowledge because she was not there. Her account was quickly disputed.4,6
In March 2024, House Republicans released a previously undisclosed transcript of the Select Committee’s interview with a Secret Service officer who drove the presidential SUV. That transcript contradicted some of Hutchinson’s testimony but corroborated other aspects of her account, including Trump’s attempt to join the mob scene at the Capitol. The driver said he did not see the altercation Hutchinson described, but he said Trump “never grabbed the steering wheel.” “I didn’t see him, you know, lunge to try to get into the front seat at all,” the driver said.4,6
Hutchinson has alleged that members of Trump’s inner circle dangled job opportunities and financial assistance while she was cooperating with the committee. She also testified that her own lawyer, a former ethics counsel in the Trump White House, told her, “the less you remember, the better.”4,6
The U.S. House of Representatives impeached Trump in 2021 on allegations that he incited the mob that attacked the Capitol, but the Senate later acquitted him. The Justice Department under Biden charged Trump with felony offenses, accusing him of illegally working to overturn his 2020 election loss in the run-up to the Capitol attack, but then-special counsel Jack Smith abandoned the case after Trump’s 2024 presidential victory. Longstanding Justice Department policy says sitting presidents cannot face criminal prosecution.4,6
Hutchinson, a native of Pennington, New Jersey, previously worked in the White House Office of Legislative Affairs and interned for Republicans, including Rep. Steve Scalise of Louisiana and Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas.4,6
No comment on the grand jury’s decision from the Justice Department, from Hutchinson or from her lawyer was available in the coverage reviewed for this story. The accounts did not say whether prosecutors would seek an indictment again or take other steps in the matter.1,4,6
“It feels ridiculous, because in my heart I knew where my loyalties lied, and my loyalties lied with the truth,” she told the committee. “And I never wanted to diverge from that.”4,6
