Yesterday’s J6 Committee hearing was more than an occasional bombshell, it was a blitzkrieg. One came right after the other, strafing and obliterating whatever shadow of a shred of credibility that Donald Trump may have had left. Cassidy Hutchinson, aged 25, is being hailed as the John Dean character in this LSD-laced sequel to Watergate on steroids, although frankly I think that if Pat Cipollone can be compelled to testify, that title would fall to him.

There were two amazing parts to Hutchinson’s testimony. One, was the revelation that Donald Trump acted like a 3-year-old and threw his lunch dishes (I wonder if they were plastic, with portion separators and a Tommy Tippy cup? If they weren’t, they should have been) leaving ketchup on the walls. The White House walls would tell us a lot if they could talk, but I think that this was a first for them, too.

Secondly, and this was the jaw dropper, Hutchinson testified that former Secret Service man Tony Ornato told her that Trump had tried to grab the steering wheel of the car he was in January 6, after he left the Ellipse, and when rebuffed from doing that, tried to grab the driver’s throat, snarling “I’m the president! Take me to the fucking Capitol!”

Naturally, MAGA world and the so-called legitimate leadership of the Republican party went totally bonkers over this and began to refute it. Plot spoiler: Tony Ornato is going to have to come in and testify under oath. Here’s what happened.

Insane it is. Totally insane, like every other minute of the debacle known as the Trump “presidency.” Renato Mariotti weighed in:

But under Federal Rule of Evidence 801(d)(2), if Trump was charged, Hutchinson’s testimony about what she heard Trump say would be a “statement… offered against an opposing party” and not hearsay.

Trump’s lawyers would likely point to the part of his speech where Trump tells the crowd to “peacefully and patriotically make your voices heard.” But Trump’s knowledge that the crowd was armed, along with the violent rhetoric he used throughout the speech, undermines his claim that those seven words constitute his true intent.

Hutchinson also testified that Trump was adamant about joining the mob at the Capitol building. “I’m the ‘effing’ president, take me up to the Capitol now!,” Trump allegedly said. At one point, according to Hutchinson, Trump grabbed the wheel of the presidential limousine and, when that was unsuccessful “lunged at a Secret Service agent in a rage.”

This, according to Mariotti, could also go toward proving Trump’s intent. Trump did not intend to simply give a speech and go back to the White House and tweet. Trump was intent on going to the Capitol and joining the crowd, which he knew to be armed and dangerous.

Hutchinson heard about Trump’s conduct in the limousine through another aide, Tony Ornato, so that portion of her testimony is hearsay. But in a criminal trial, prosecutors could subpoena Ornato (or someone else in the limo) or seek to admit Hutchinson’s testimony under an exception to the hearsay rules.

There is also some small question of fact here as to whether Trump was actually in “the Beast” which is the bulletproof presidential limousine or if he was in a bulletproof SUV. This question arises due to the fact that it is one thing to reach forward to the driver in the Beast and another in the SUV.

Expect lots of right-wing media attention on this. Trump is in major defensive mode right now.

It makes sense that they’re deflecting from the most incendiary and tabloidesque charges but the fact of the matter is that Hutchinson’s testimony puts a lot of people more on the hook than they were before Tuesday. This is the distraction that they’ll use because they don’t want to deal with the substantive testimony.

 

 

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7 COMMENTS

  1. The tactic from the Trumpadors seems to be pick on the one piece of evidence where she doesn’t have actual proof. She said she was TOLD it by a SS agent – NOT that she saw it.

    They’re very quiet about the rest of her evidence and missing the part where she says that Agent Ornato toid her about it. They seem to think that bit negates the rest of it

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  3. Last night on MSNBC, Washington Post reporter and author of Zero Fail, The Rise and Fall of The Secret Service was positive it was not The Beast but a bulletproof SUV. She also explained why that mattered, because if it was The Beast, Trump could not have reached the steering wheel or the agent in the front passenger seat. Both Ornato and the Secret Service agent should be invited or served to testify under oath.

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    • The discussion on that is a bit more nuanced. It would be much easier for Trump to do what the testimony says if they were in one of the armored SUVs which in fact was the case. However, even though it would have been more difficult (due to the seating and a bit more distance) even in the so-called Beast Trump still could have tried to physically grab (or actually grab) the wheel and grab at Engel’s throat. There is a bullet resistant divider in between the driver and passenger compartments of the Beast but it can be lowered by the occupant(s) in the back. So, even though it would have been a little more difficult (especially for someone as physically unfit as Trump) it was in fact possible for him to have done what Ms. Hutchinson testified she was told he’d done.

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  4. MTG might want to rethink her “advice” to Trump. After all, if he were to “sue the little liar,” he’d have to TESTIFY IN COURT–UNDER PENALTIES OF PERJURY–about the whole matter.

    And since Trump’s own little comment ends so oddly, his little online comments put his very truthfulness (“truthiness?”) in question. Note his “I hardly knew who she was” is punctuated with a question mark rather than a period. “I hardly knew who she was.” is a flat-out statement that he didn’t know her. “I hardly knew who she was?” leads to the idea that he doesn’t even know what he thinks he knows.

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    • Trump is showing he is standing on a fragile pile of eggshells, my thought is if he goes completely bonkers, is he going to turn ultra violent with a carving knife or other weapon of choice … or turn mute and devastated, with a perfect pout and associated whine, obviously, he has assumed the role of a stolen election to the point of no return … a painful end for a malignant narcissus pig that he is …

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  5. Just to correct a misapprehension of what Trump may (or may not) have done in the car. No-one ever said he grabbed a SS agent by the throat – the word used was ‘clavicle’ which is the collarbone and not the neck. In short she said she was told he grabbed the agent by the shoulder.

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