Grand Jury Declines to Indict Former White House Aide Cassidy Hutchinson

Washington – A federal grand jury in Washington on Tuesday declined to indict Cassidy Hutchinson, the former White House staffer whose dramatic but disputed testimony before the House committee investigating the January 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol drew national attention, according to two people familiar with the matter.

The sources, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorised to discuss the case publicly, said grand jurors rejected the Justice Department’s request for an indictment. The decision marks the latest setback for the department in its efforts to persuade grand juries in the capital to pursue politically sensitive prosecutions.

The specific allegations prosecutors sought to bring against Hutchinson were not immediately clear. Republican lawmakers have previously accused her of lying under oath in her 2022 testimony about President Donald Trump’s conduct on January 6, when a crowd of his supporters stormed the Capitol in an effort to stop Congress from certifying his election defeat to Democrat Joe Biden. Hutchinson declined to comment through her lawyer on Tuesday.

The attempted prosecution comes amid a wider series of politically sensitive actions by the Justice Department ahead of next week’s midterm elections, targeting figures regarded as adversaries of the president. These include a renewed attempt to prosecute former FBI Director James Comey and a search by federal agents of the home of Democratic Representative Ilhan Omar of Minnesota, an outspoken critic of the president.

Grand juries rarely decline to return indictments, but citizens serving on such panels in Washington have rebuffed the Trump administration’s Justice Department in several high-profile cases. Earlier this year, a grand jury in the capital refused to indict Democratic lawmakers over a video in which they urged U.S. service members to follow established military protocols and to reject orders they considered unlawful.

Hutchinson, who served as special assistant to then-White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows, testified at a hearing announced only 24 hours in advance. Her account was regarded at the time as especially significant because of her close proximity to senior officials.

She described a president who was angry and defiant, who sought to allow armed supporters to bypass security screening at a rally that morning protesting his 2020 election loss, and who later reached for the steering wheel of the presidential vehicle after the Secret Service refused to take him to the Capitol. She also testified that Trump declined to intervene as the situation at the Capitol turned violent and rioters chanted “Hang Mike Pence.”

Trump rejected much of her testimony at the time, describing her on his Truth Social platform as a “total phony” and “bad news.”

Her account of the incident inside the presidential vehicle proved the most contentious element of her testimony, although Hutchinson acknowledged during the hearing that she had not witnessed it herself and was recounting what a White House security official had told her.

In March 2024, House Republicans released a previously undisclosed transcript of the Select Committee’s interview with the Secret Service officer who drove the presidential vehicle that day. The driver’s account contradicted parts of Hutchinson’s testimony while supporting others, including Trump’s determination to go to the Capitol. The driver said the president was insistent on going but stated that Trump “never grabbed the steering wheel” and that he did not see him attempt to reach into the front seat.

Hutchinson has said that members of Trump’s inner circle offered her job opportunities and financial assistance while she was cooperating with the committee. In a closed-door interview later released by the committee, she also testified that a former lawyer of hers, who had previously served as an ethics counsel in the Trump White House, advised her that “the less you remember, the better.” The lawyer has disputed her account.

“It feels ridiculous, because in my heart I knew where my loyalties lied, and my loyalties lied with the truth,” Hutchinson told the committee. “And I never wanted to diverge from that.”