7 takeaways from the shocking June 28 hearing on the January 6 insurrection on Capitol Hill

Hutchinson: Trump approved of chants calling for Pence to be hanged 2:57

(CNN) --

The House select committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol insurrection reconvened Tuesday for a hastily scheduled hearing, featuring blockbuster testimony from Trump's White House adviser. Cassidy Hutchinson.

Hutchinson has cooperated extensively with the investigation, filing four closed-door depositions.

She revealed how then-President Donald Trump and his inner circle were warned about the potential for violence on January 6, and how Trump wanted to join the crowd of his supporters at the US Capitol.

The testimony reinforced the narrative the commission has been pushing in recent weeks: that Trump incited and supported the insurrection as part of a desperate power grab to steal a second term, and that many of his top aides thought his plans were illegal. .

Here are takeaways from Hutchinson's key testimony.

Trump and his White House secretary were warned about violence, including armed rally attendees

Hutchinson really moved the ball forward in terms of establishing that Trump was personally aware of the potential for violence, but he went ahead on January 6 with his attempts to anger his supporters into interfering with the joint session of Congress to certify the president's victory. Joe Biden.

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She said Trump was told that morning that guns were being confiscated from some of his supporters who attended his rally.

Later, when Trump and his team were in the Ellipse, the large oval garden on the south side of the White House, and before his speech, Trump shouted orders to his staff to "remove the arches," referring to the smoke detectors. metals, because the people in the crowd, "are not here to hurt me.

Trump also said, "I don't give a f*** if they have guns," according to Hutchinson.

This is particularly shocking, because Trump encouraged the same crowd to march on Capitol Hill as lawmakers confirmed Biden's victory.

(Hundreds of staunch Trump supporters soon stormed the Capitol, many with knives, bear spray, metal poles, Tasers, and some firearms.)

When Hutchinson told his boss, Mark Meadows, about the first reports of gun seizures, Meadows didn't even look up from his phone, according to Hutchinson.

Two days earlier, he had told her that "things could get very, very bad on January 6."

"The potential for violence was known or known before the violence began, early enough that President Trump has taken steps to prevent it," said Rep. Liz Cheney, R-Wyoming, the panel's Republican vice chair.

She added that Trump could have urged his supporters not to march on Capitol Hill, or condemned the violence more quickly, but he didn't because he "had something else in mind."

• Who is Cassidy Hutchinson, the Meadows aide who offered explosive testimony before Congress?

• ANALYSIS |

  The hearings on the assault on the Capitol on January 6 have revealed tons of information.

  This is the abstract

Fifth hearing for the assault on the Capitol: the conclusions 6:54

Trump intended to go to Capitol Hill and pushed to do so until the last minute

The select committee effectively demonstrated this Tuesday by presenting a combination of damning witness testimony and White House records showing that Trump intended to join supporters on Capitol Hill and was pushing to do so minutes before the violence began. To climb.

It was previously known that Trump wanted to go to Capitol Hill, but Hutchinson's testimony established for the first time that people close to Trump had prior knowledge of this plan.

The reality of Trump's intentions became clear to national security officials in real time when they learned that the Secret Service was struggling to find a way for the former president to travel to Capitol Hill while on stage urging supporters to march. , according to Security Council (NSC) records from that day that were first revealed during Tuesday's hearing.

NSC chat logs provide a minute-by-minute account of how the situation unfolded from the perspective of top White House national security officials on Jan. 6 and, along with witness testimony delivered Tuesday, contradict an earlier account. de Meadows in his book where he says that Trump never intended to march on Capitol Hill.

"MOGUL is going to the capital... now they are clearing a route," reads a message sent to the chat log at 12:29 p.m.

"MilAide has confirmed that she wants to walk," reads a 12:32 p.m. message, "They are begging her to reconsider."

"So this is happening," reads a message sent at 12:47 p.m.

What does Trump say about January 6 in new documentary?

3:23

Hutchinson also testified that some in Trump's orbit had made it clear days before Jan. 6 that Trump wanted to go to the US Capitol.

She told the commission Tuesday that Trump's attorney, Rudy Giuliani, told her on January 2, four days before the US Capitol was attacked by Trump supporters: "We're going to the Capitol" on January 6. , and that Trump himself planned to be there as well.

• High-profile investigator to leave January 6 commission early

The adviser recounted a second-hand incident in which Trump took the wheel

Hutchinson testified Tuesday that he heard a secondhand account of how Trump was so angry at his Secret Service detail for preventing him from going to Capitol Hill on Jan. 6 that he lunged for the front of his presidential limousine and tried to turn the wheel.

She said Tony Ornato, then the White House deputy chief of staff, said that Robert Engel, who was the Secret Service agent in charge on January 6, repeatedly told Trump on his way back to the White House after the speech by the former president at the Elipse that it was not safe to go to the Capitol.

According to Hutchinson, Ornato recounted Trump yelling, "I'm the fucking president. Take me to the Capitol now."

Trump then "reached out to the front of the vehicle to grab the steering wheel," Hutchinson recalled.

He added that, according to Ornato, Trump used his other hand to "reach out" toward Engel.

Both Engel and Ornato testified before the commission behind closed doors, but their statements were not used at Tuesday's hearing.

After the testimony, a Secret Service official familiar with the matter told CNN that Ornato denies telling Hutchinson that the former president or an agent of his took the steering wheel.

The Secret Service, through the Department of Homeland Security's Office of Legislative Affairs, notified the commission Tuesday afternoon that it will make the agents involved available to testify under oath, the official said.

Agents are also prepared to swear under oath that the incident itself did not occur.

The lead agent, Engel, previously testified before the commission and described interactions with Trump on Jan. 6, including the former president's desire to travel to Capitol Hill, but was not asked about an altercation or being assaulted, the official said.

When asked if the Secret Service contested the testimony, a commission spokesman said, "The commission trusts the credibility of a witness who is willing to testify under oath and in public, but who is also willing to listen to all information that others may have to assist in their investigation.

Hutchinson also recounted a separate Trump tantrum after then-Attorney General William Barr told the Associated Press in December 2020 that there was no evidence of widespread fraud in the 2020 election.

"I remember hearing noise coming from the hallway," Hutchinson began.

She saw an employee of the president in the dining room changing the tablecloth, ketchup dripping down the wall, and a shattered china plate on the floor.

"The president was extremely angry about the attorney general's interview ... and had thrown his lunch against the wall," Hutchinson said.

"I grabbed a towel and started wiping the ketchup off the wall."

The anecdote arose when the commission asked Hutchinson about Trump's state of mind after losing the election.

• 8 Takeaways From Capitol Assault Hearing: Trump Knew Plan To Block Election Result Was Illegal, Commission Says

Cipollone warned: "People are going to die and the blood will be on your damn hands"

Trump defended rioters calling for the hanging of then-Vice President Mike Pence on Jan. 6, according to Hutchinson.

Hutchinson aired a conversation he observed between White House counsel Pat Cipollone and Meadows after they discussed chants to inflict violence on Pence with Trump.

"I remember Pat saying something like, 'Mark, we've got to do something else. They're literally asking to hang the vice president,'" Hutchinson recalled.

Meadows responded, "You heard him, Pat. They think Mike deserves it. He doesn't think they're doing anything wrong," according to Hutchinson.

Cipollone responded, "This is crazy. We need to do something else."

Hutchinson testified that Cipollone had previously rushed to Meadows' office after rioters stormed the Capitol and told Meadows what had happened, saying they had to go meet with Trump.

"Mark, something has to be done, or people are going to die and the blood will be on your goddamn hands," Cipollone told Meadows, according to Hutchinson.

"This is getting out of control."

• ANALYSIS |

  Scenes of disgusting violence on Capitol Hill open the January 6 commission's case against Trump and his insurrectionary conspiracy

January 6 commission praises Pence's 'courage' in standing up to Trump 4:24

"There was great concern" in the White House about invoking the 25th Amendment after the riots

Trump delivered a speech on Jan. 7, 2021, finally acknowledging that Biden would be inaugurated in part because there was "serious concern" by the White House that Pence and the Cabinet could invoke the 25th Amendment to remove him from power, according to Cassidy's testimony. .

Hutchinson also testified that Trump did not want to include references in the speech to prosecuting pro-Trump rioters, but instead wanted to offer pardons for them.

After the White House counsel's office backed down, Trump mentioned pardons in that speech.

Had the 25th Amendment been invoked, Trump could have put his presidency up for a vote before Congress, where a two-thirds vote would have been needed to kick him out.

"There was great concern about the possible invocation of the 25th Amendment, and there were concerns about what would happen in the Senate if it did," Hutchinson testified.

The thinking at the time was that Trump needed the speech "as a cover" to ward off the threat that his cabinet would try to remove him from power, Hutchinson said.

She said that was a "secondary reason" for Trump giving the speech;

The first was that Trump needed to condemn the violent attack to try to prevent it from becoming his legacy.

While Trump delivered the speech effectively conceding the election, he wanted to remove calls to "prosecute rioters or call them violent" from early drafts of his Jan. 7 speech, according to Hutchinson, but he wanted pardons for his supporters.

"He didn't want that in there," Hutchinson said.

"He meant that he wanted to potentially forgive them."

"He didn't think they had done anything wrong," Hutchinson said, referring to the pro-Trump rioters.

"The people who did something bad that day, or the person who did something bad that day was Mike Pence, not being with him."

Trump's conduct on January 6 was 'un-American' and 'unpatriotic,' Hutchinson said

In emotional and powerful testimony, Hutchinson called Trump's conduct on Jan. 6 "unpatriotic" and "un-American."

The commission asked Hutchinson to describe his reaction in real time since January 6, when Trump attacked Pence in a tweet at 2:24 p.m.

"As a staff member ... I remember feeling frustrated, disappointed and really, it felt personal. It was very sad," Hutchinson said.

"As an American, I was disgusted. It was unpatriotic. It wasn't American. We're seeing the Capitol building being defaced by a lie. And it was a really hard thing to digest at the time... I'm still struggling to get over the emotions of that."

His condemnation of Trump's behavior may shed some light on his motivations for presenting so much damaging information about January 6.

Commission members have praised Hutchinson and other Republicans who have testified, calling them patriots.

Commission talks about evidence of witness tampering

The commission has obtained testimony from some important witnesses from Trump's inner circle, including members of his family.

But Cheney suggested during the hearing that there could be some sort of Trump-imposed blackout, and that the panel has evidence of witness tampering.

He said a witness, whom the commission did not identify, testified that: "What they told me is as long as I'm still a team player, they know I'm on the team, I'm doing the right thing, I'm protecting who I need to protect, You know, I'll still be in good shape in Trump's world."

Another unnamed witness said someone in Trump's orbit told them Trump was "thinking of you" and that "he knows you're loyal" and hopes "you'll do the right thing when you go for your statement."

Cheney said the commission takes this "seriously" and will consider "next steps," which could hint at a criminal referral, for possible witness tampering or obstruction.

Democratic Rep. Bennie Thompson of Mississippi, chairman of the committee, issued a public appeal for further cooperation, telling potential witnesses that if they "discover some courage that they've hidden somewhere, our doors remain open."

Trump has denied all wrongdoing regarding January 6 and related investigations.

The commission's new evidence is consistent with a years-long pattern of behavior by Trump, who has repeatedly used private and public channels to pressure people who might testify against him.

This happened with his former lawyer Michael Cohen and his 2016 campaign chairman Paul Manafort during the Russia investigation, and with a US ambassador during the 2019 impeachment hearings.

Trump has also retaliated against people who provided damaging public testimony against him, including a top White House national security official and his ambassador to the European Union, who described his pressure campaign against Ukraine during Trump's impeachment hearings. the Chamber in 2019.

-- CNN's Josh Campbell contributed to this report.

Assault on the Capitol