Jack Smith questions reliability of key J6 witness’s testimony

Former particular counsel Jack Smith undermined the claims of Cassidy Hutchinson, a former White Home aide and Jan. 6 committee witness, whereas testifying earlier than Congress in a latest assertion.

Smith informed the Home Judiciary Committee this month that he reviewed Hutchinson’s explosive claims as a part of his investigation and prosecution of President Donald Trump in reference to the 2020 election, in response to a transcript launched Wednesday.

Smith stated they had been flawed as a result of Hutchinson didn’t supply first-hand info.

When requested in the course of the deposition how he would have approached cross-examination of Hutchinson, Smith stated he would have taken steps to ban the usage of a few of her testimony.

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Jack Smith, former particular counsel, arrives for closed-door testimony on the Home Judiciary Committee in Washington, DC, on December 17, 2025. (Kent Nishimura/Bloomberg by way of Getty Photos)

“If I had been a lawyer and Ms. Hutchinson was a witness, the very first thing I might do could be to attempt to exclude a few of her testimony as a result of it was rumour, and I haven’t got the complete scope of her testimony in entrance of me proper now, however I do keep in mind that that was a good portion of it,” Smith stated.

Smith was additionally requested about particular claims Hutchinson had made, together with that Trump was conscious that a few of his supporters could be armed at his rally and that Trump tried to seize his driver’s steering wheel in anger.

Hutchinson “was a second and even third-hand witness,” Smith stated, including that different witnesses supplied “completely different views” than her.

Cassidy Hutchinson, an aide to Mark Meadows when he was White Home chief of workers within the Trump administration, gestures to her neck as she tells a narrative about President Trump in the course of the Home of Representatives choose committee listening to on Jan. 6 on Capitol Hill on June 28, 2022. (Jabin Botsford/The Washington Submit by way of Getty Photos)

“We interviewed, I believe, the individuals she spoke to, and we additionally, as I recall, interviewed officers who had been there, together with the officer who was within the automobile,” Smith stated. “And that officer stated, if I bear in mind accurately, and I need to be certain that I am proper about this, that President Trump was very offended and wished to go to the Capitol, however the model of occasions that he defined was not the identical as what Cassidy Hutchinson stated she heard from somebody secondhand.”

Smith famous that “a few of the issues she testified about had been secondhand rumour, issues she had heard from different individuals and that consequently that testimony might or is probably not admissible, and it actually wouldn’t be as highly effective as firsthand testimony.”

Hutchinson turned a key witness within the Democratic-led January 6 Committee investigation into the assault on the U.S. Capitol, testifying a number of instances each privately and publicly. Her testimony dominated headlines, however her claims turned a spotlight for Republicans, who felt the committee’s work lacked credibility as a result of its solely Republican members had been two outspoken anti-Trump lawmakers.

Hutchinson served as a high aide to White Home Chief of Workers Mark Meadows within the ultimate months of Trump’s first presidency, giving her a behind-the-scenes have a look at inside discussions amongst White Home officers within the aftermath of the 2020 election.

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The January 6 riot on the US Capitol in 2021. (Julio Cortez, file)

At a extremely publicized listening to in June 2022, Hutchinson testified underneath oath about what she stated had been White Home warnings about the opportunity of violence on January 6 and Trump’s alleged consciousness that some supporters attending his rally could be armed.

In one other declare later disputed by different witnesses, Hutchinson additionally recalled conversations about how Trump tried to take the steering wheel from a U.S. Secret Service agent as a result of he wished to go to the Capitol and never the West Wing.

Hutchinson testified that she was informed the president “stated one thing alongside the strains of, ‘I am the president’s president, now take me to the Capitol,'” whereupon [the agent] replied, “Sir, we have to get again to the West Wing.” The President reached towards the entrance of the car and grabbed the steering wheel.”

Hutchinson had not talked about that particular story in any of her earlier interviews with the committee. She later stated she withheld it on the course of her former lawyer, Stefan Passantino.

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Smith was requested about Hutchinson this month as a part of a greater than eight-hour closed-door deposition that targeted on his investigations and prosecutions of Trump associated to the 2020 election and Trump’s alleged retention of categorized supplies.

Smith defended his investigative practices, which included subpoenaing cellphone information from the Senate and Home of Representatives. He additionally defended a few of his prosecutorial choices, together with looking for gag orders towards Trump and submitting an unusually pared-down superseding indictment towards Trump after the Supreme Courtroom dominated that Trump had some presidential immunity protections.