Grand jury throws out Trump DOJ bid to indict Jan 6 star witness Cassidy Hutchinson

A Washington grand jury has refused to indict Cassidy Hutchinson, the former White House staffer whose testimony about Donald Trump’s conduct on Jan. 6, 2021, became one of the defining moments of the House investigation into the U.S. Capitol insurrection.

The decision, delivered on Tuesday, was described as a defeat for the Justice Department by two people familiar with the matter, who spoke to The Associated Press on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to publicly discuss the case.

Grand jurors in the nation’s capital rejected prosecutors’ request to indict Hutchinson.

It is highly unusual for grand juries to decline to return indictments, but citizens in the nation’s capital have rebuked the Justice Department under Trump in a number of high-profile cases.

Earlier this year, a Washington grand jury declined to indict Democratic lawmakers in connection with a video they recorded urging U.S. service members to follow established military protocols and reject orders they believe to be unlawful.

The allegations against Hutchinson were not immediately clear.

Republican lawmakers had accused her of lying under oath in her explosive testimony in 2022 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.

The failed effort to indict Hutchinson was hardly isolated.

It is part of a surge in politically sensitive actions by the Justice Department in the run-up to next week’s midterm elections targeting perceived adversaries of the president.

Those actions include a new attempt to prosecute former FBI Director James Comey and a search by federal agents of the home of outspoken Trump critic and Democratic U.S. Rep. Ilhan Omar of Minnesota.

Hutchinson declined to comment through her lawyer on Tuesday.

She delivered her testimony at a surprise hearing announced just 24 hours earlier, and it was seen at the time as particularly compelling given 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.

She also testified that Trump later grabbed at the steering wheel of the presidential SUV when the Secret Service refused to let him go to the Capitol.

And when the events at the Capitol spiraled toward violence, with the crowd chanting “Hang Mike Pence,” she testified that Trump declined to intervene.

Trump at the time denied much of what Hutchinson said on his social media platform, Truth Social. He called her a “total phony” and “bad news.”

Hutchinson’s description of the altercation inside the presidential SUV was regarded as particularly explosive.

Hutchinson said Trump was angry and defiant on Jan. 6

She acknowledged during her testimony, though, that she was relaying what she had heard from a White House security official and did not have firsthand knowledge of the episode because she was not there.

Her account was quickly disputed.

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 of the presidential limo driver 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 described the president as insistent on going to the Capitol but said he did not see the altercation that Hutchinson described.

The driver said Trump “never grabbed the steering wheel” and also said: “I didn’t see him, you know, lunge to try to get into the front seat at all.”

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 in a closed-door interview released by the committee that a former lawyer of hers — a former ethics counsel in the Trump White House — told her “the less you remember, the better.”

“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.” The former attorney has disputed that account.

The U.S. House of Representatives impeached Trump in 2021 on allegations that he incited the mob that attacked the Capitol, but he was later acquitted by the Senate.

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.

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.

Hutchinson is a native of Pennington, New Jersey.

She 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.