Ex-Trump Aide Recalls Moment Cassidy Hutchinson Asked For Help With Jan. 6 Testimony
Former White House communications director Alyssa Farah Griffin on Tuesday shared the moment Cassidy Hutchinson reached out to her to request advice on how to go about sharing damning evidence in regard to Donald Trump with the House committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection.
Farah Griffin said Hutchinson, a former White House aide, contacted her after Hutchinson’s second behind-the-doors appearance before the Jan. 6 panel, while she was still being represented by a lawyer paid for by Donald Trump’s PAC.
The two meet at Farah Griffin’s house in Washington and went through the various courses of action Hutchinson could take, Farah Griffin recalled during a panel discussion on CNN’s “The Lead.”
“She frankly sat me down and kind of laid out what she knew and it was damning,” Farah Griffin said.
The former White House communications director said she suggested taking the information Hutchinson had to then-Rep. Liz Cheney, the vice chair of the House panel, to see if they would be willing to call her in again for testimony, and in the meantime look for lawyers that would be willing to represent the young aide pro bono.
Eventually, Hutchinson got new lawyers and became one of the most crucial witnesses to publicly testify before the House panel, sharing several bombshells, including that Trump knew that members of the crowd at the “Stop the Steal” rally on Jan. 6, which preceded the Capitol riot, were armed.
Farah Griffin also noted the courage it took for Hutchinson, a 25-year-old at the time with limited financial resources to sustain herself, to come forward.
She “could barely make ends meet and still did the right thing when men with bigger titles and bigger salaries did not,” Farah Griffin added.
Hutchinson has sat for multiple interviews this week as her new book, “Enough,” hit bookstands Tuesday.
In her memoir, Hutchinson shares several anecdotes about her experiences working in the Trump administration that could spell trouble for the four-times-indicted former president and his allies.
Hutchinson recalled the wife of then-White House chief of staff Mark Meadows complaining about the high cost of dry cleaning his suit of “bonfire” odor after Meadows burned several documents in his fireplace as Trump’s time in office was coming to an end, according to an excerpt of the book reported by The New York Times.
Meadows and Trump were indicted by a Fulton County grand jury last month over their efforts to undo the 2020 presidential election in Georgia. Both have pleaded not guilty.
Trump has faced criminal charges in three further investigations, including the scheme to overturn Joe Biden’s 2020 election win, the alleged mishandling of classified documents and a hush money payment scheme involving porn star Stormy Daniels.
Hutchinson has reportedly appeared before both the Fulton County grand jury and the Washington, D.C., body that probed Trump’s 2020 alleged election interference. However, it’s not clear whether her testimony contributed to him getting charged in either case.