(RepublicanJournal.org) – House Republicans are continuing their probe into the Select Committee that investigated the January 6 Capitol riot. They’re currently focusing on former White House aide Cassidy Hutchinson, who was a key witness for that committee. Among the things they want to know is how much contact she had with people who played major roles on January 6, 2021 — and what her relationship with controversial committee member Liz Cheney was.
Investigators Want Answers
On May 14, the House Administration Committee’s subcommittee on oversight wrote to Cassidy to request a large amount of information. Subcommittee chairman Barry Loudermilk (R-GA) wrote that a document review had found the Select Committee archives didn’t contain messages between Cassidy and eight members of the Trump administration. He said his subcommittee was trying to find out why those messages hadn’t been kept, and said this failure was “concerning.”
Loudermilk went on to ask Cassidy for a long list of messages that could be linked to the “security and intelligence failures” that led to rioters entering the Capitol. These include communications between her and former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows. Former communications chief Alyssa Farah and former Secret Service agent Robert Engel, as well as phone logs, text messages, and calendars.
Top of the list, though, was a request for all of Cassidy’s communications with former Wyoming congresswoman Liz Cheney (R). Cheney, a fierce critic of former president Donald Trump, was one of the Select Committee’s most controversial members; after former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) rejected the GOP’s nominees for the Committee she appointed Cheney to it.
Key — But Controversial — Witness
Cassidy’s prominence in front of the Select Committee came as a surprise. A fairly minor Trump administration official who served as an assistant to Meadows, she gave the Committee a dramatic account of Trump scuffling with Secret Service agents and trying to grab the wheel of the presidential limousine in an attempt to join his supporters at the Capitol. The problem is that Cassidy’s story was hearsay and four other White House staff members contradicted it.
Another controversy around Cassidy’s testimony is that last fall she published a sensationalist book about January 6. Loudermilk also wants to see all her messages relating to her book deal — suggesting he’s suspicious that she embellished her story to make it sell better.
Lawyers for Cassidy claim Loudermilk is just trying to pressure her, but the subcommittee chair argues that he’s already asked her for much of this information and she’s failed to provide it. Going by his letter, Loudermilk is running out of patience.
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