You know, one would think that having a good memory would certainly be a valuable quality, if not a prerequisite, for being a decent Secret Service Agent, let alone for one destined to rise to the upper reaches of that career choice such as Anthony Ornato.
Secret Service Agents are after all basically cops, and indeed receive 13 weeks of training at the Criminal Investigator Training Program (CITP) in Glynco, Georgia as part of their regimen upon entering the Service.
Ornato himself was a cop in Waterbury, Connecticut for two years before he signed up as a SS officer and in addition to working in the “Presidential Protective Division and Protective Operations, he also did time in the Criminal Investigations” division of the agency.
As a trained police officer Ornato, it would seem to me, would need to possess at least an above average memory for detail about sensitive operations or investigations one has been involved with… if not an exemplary one.
But as concerns his service to drumpf as his Chief-of-Staff for Special Operations, and particularly pertaining to his actions on the day of The Capitol Riot, Mr. Ornato seems to have been walking around in a stupor, unable to “recall” much of anything at all, according to the transcript of his testimony to the January 6th Committee released yesterday.
“Anthony Ornato, a former White House deputy chief of staff in the Trump administration as well as a former longtime Secret Service official, repeatedly told the Jan. 6 House select committee that he had no recollection of a heated interaction between former President Donald Trump and U.S. Secret Service agents, according to a transcript of his testimony, released Friday.
Details of the alleged encounter first drew attention in June, when former White House aide Cassidy Hutchinson told the committee of Trump’s desire to go to the Capitol with his supporters, recounting the alleged demand in explosive public testimony.
Hutchinson testified before the committee that she spoke with Ornato in a room with Robert Engel, the Secret Service special agent in charge on Jan. 6. According to Hutchinson, during the meeting, Ornato conveyed that the president became “irate” in his vehicle when he was told that he could not go to the Capitol, saying something to the effect of “I’m the effing president, take me up to the Capitol now.
When informed that he had to return to the West Wing, Trump reached up to the front of the vehicle to grab at the steering wheel, prompting Engel to grab his arm, Hutchinson said she was told by Ornato, at the time. The president then used his free hand to lunge towards Engel, she said, noting that Ornato “motioned towards his clavicles” when describing the incident.“
It seems to me that as an agent serving as a part of the President’s protective detail, being told of such an incident would certainly be memorable, and, if asked about in in Congressional testimony, one should be able to affirm or deny for certain that you were told that the President of the United States had throttled his Secret Service driver.
But not so much our observant Agent O. who swore and affirmed he could not “recall” if Engel told him such an altercation took place…
“I don’t recall being made aware of anything that took place with the president in his motorcade from the Ellipse back to the White House,” Ornato testified on Nov. 29 — according to the just-released transcript — when confronted about his conflicting account.”
C’mon, Tony, you are telling me and a Congressional committee that if you had been told of the President trying to put a sleeper hold on your fellow agent it must have slipped your mind, or conversely, if Ms. Hutchinson falsely testified about the incident as told to her Engels in your presence, well… heck… you just can’t remember that either?
I call bullshit.
And someone else calls bullshit on your testimony also:
Bullshit. https://t.co/kdOVZRex5P
— Fred Wellman (@FPWellman) December 31, 2022
Sure seems like there is a lot you don’t remember, Tony.
Or was your amnesia coached?
All those “I don’t recall” answers. Was he using the attorney Cassidy Hutchinson fired?
— Catherine M. Campbell [email protected] (@CampCat953) December 31, 2022
He probably can’t recall, Catherine.
My informally adopted six year old remembers everything. Tell her something and she’ll remind me even if I’ve moved on. Maybe we should train a younger age group to guard presidents. Does lying Tony remember two guys dressed in black holding up a pen like device? Lying to the committee is one thing. Being put in front of a grand jury under oath is another. Perjury anyone?
Hmm. Maybe Ornato should be placed, for his own protection, in permanent rehab, for early onset dementia. Would serve him right.
He should have been permanently removed from the Secret Service when he went to work at the WH in a *political* position.
Oh yes, RW always have a “convenient” memory!
Tony Ornato is seeming more like the singer from long ago than a member of the Secret Service. Nah. The singer could remember the lyrics to his songs! The bottom line is he lied. Put his lying ass in front of a jury in DC and he’d be convicted of perjury. It won’t happen, but it goddamned well should.
Well, I suppose “I don’t recall” is pretty much perjury-proof. If he actually testified to something that was refuted by someone else’s testimony, it’s pretty tough to claim a “simple error” (or even a “faulty memory” depending on the incorrectly answered question) but “I don’t recall” would require a prosecutor to prove that he was lying (especially difficult without absolutely incontrovertible evidence that he lied the previous time).