Former aide: Trump was told protesters had weapons

Hutchinson, a top aide to Trump chief of staff Mark Meadows, said she was “scared, and nervous for what could happen” ahead of the riot after conversations with Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani, Meadows and others.

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National News

June 28, 2022 - 4:45 PM

A video of former President Donald Trump is displayed on a screen during a hearing of the House select committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol. (Kent Nishimura/Los Angeles Times/TNS)

WASHINGTON (AP) — Cassidy Hutchinson, a key aide in Donald Trump’s White House, told the House committee investigating the violent Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection on Tuesday that Trump was informed that people rallying on the mall that morning had weapons but he told officials to “let my people in” and march to the Capitol.

Hutchinson quoted Trump as directing his staff, in profane terms, to take away the magnetometers that he thought would slow down supporters who’d gathered in Washington. In videotaped testimony played before the committee, she recalled the former president saying words to the effect of: “”I don’t f-in’ care that they have weapons.”

“They’re not here to hurt me. Take the f-in’mags away. Let my people in. They can march to the Capitol from here,” Hutchinson testified.

Hutchinson, a top aide to Trump chief of staff Mark Meadows, said she was “scared, and nervous for what could happen” ahead of the riot after conversations with Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani, Meadows and others.

Meadows told Hutchinson that “things might get real real bad,” she said. Giuliani told her it was going to be “a great day” and “we’re going to the Capitol.” She described Meadows as unconcerned as security officials told him that people at Trump’s rally had weapons — including people wearing armor and carrying automatic weapons.

Hutchinson told the panel that she was apprehensive ahead of time because she had heard plans for a rally and possible movements to the Capitol, where hundreds of Trump’s supporters later violently pushed past police and broke through windows and doors, interrupting the certification of President Joe Biden’s victory.

“I had a deeper concern for what was happening with the planning aspects of it,” Hutchinson told the panel.

The 25-year-old, who was a special assistant and aide to former Trump chief of staff Mark Meadows, has already provided a trove of information to congressional investigators and has sat for four interviews behind closed doors. But the committee called the hearing this week to hear her public testimony.

Mississippi Rep. Bennie Thompson, the committee’s chairman, said that in recent days, the panel had received information about what Trump and his aides were saying during critical hours of Jan. 6 and that it was critical for the American people to hear that information immediately.

The committee’s vice chairwoman, Wyoming Rep. Liz Cheney, said the hearing would shed light on Trump’s conduct at the time, the “actions and statements” of senior advisers and also what they knew about the prospect of violence in the days before the violent attack. She told the panel in earlier interviews that Meadows was warned about possible unrest.

Her appearance was cloaked in extraordinary secrecy. The committee announced the surprise hearing with only 24 hours’ notice, and Hutchison’s appearance was only confirmed to The Associated Press by a person familiar with the matter.

While it is unclear what new evidence she might provide Tuesday, Hutchinson’s testimony is likely to tell a first-hand story of Trump’s pressure campaign, and how the former president responded after the violence began, more vividly than any other witness the committee has called in thus far.

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