Donald Trump's Driver Spilled The Truth About A Controversial Incident From January 6
Though he may have clinched his third presidential nomination, Donald Trump still has a long way to go before he can declare victory. Trump's "hush money" case and other legal quagmires could be a liability, not to mention his policies and the various controversies in which he has been involved. His fellow Republicans are trying to help him with at least one problematic part of his history. The House Administration subcommittee is holding a number of hearings to reinvestigate the findings of the January 6 Select Committee's report. The Republican-led group hopes to prove the former president bears no responsibility for the actions of the supporters who stormed the Capitol building. One newly released piece of evidence may help support that argument.
After giving his rallying speech on the National Ellipse that fateful morning, Trump was driven back to the White House by one of his Secret Service officers. Cassidy Hutchinson, former aide to then-Chief of Staff Mark Meadows, testified before the committee about a conversation she'd had with another Secret Service official. The agent, she said, told her Trump had tried to grab the steering wheel of his presidential vehicle in an attempt to force the driver to turn around.
However, the Select Committee also questioned the Secret Service driver, and a transcript of that interview was recently obtained by ABC News and other outlets. The driver's testimony contradicted Hutchinson's account: "[Trump] never grabbed the steering wheel," he said. "I didn't see him, you know, lunge to try to get into the front seat at all."
Does it matter whether Trump tried to turn his limo around?
Cassidy Hutchinson's credibility may have been hurt by the testimony of Donald Trump's limo driver, but perhaps not as badly as it seems. Although the Secret Service agent denied the former president actually tried to take control of the wheel in his determination to join the Capitol protest, he did corroborate some of Hutchinson's other claims about January 6. According to the transcript, acquired by The New York Times (via The Hill), the driver affirmed, "The president was insistent on going to the Capitol." The agent went on to say Trump didn't appear "irate," but it was clear he was not happy about being taken away from the action. "[H]e kept asking why we couldn't go, why we couldn't go, and that he wasn't concerned about the people that were there or referenced them being Trump people or Trump supporters," the agent testified.
The new House subcommittee will still try to use the driver's testimony to prove the former POTUS didn't directly influence the protesters' actions, but Trump's impassioned speech may work against him. Claiming voter fraud, he urged his followers to walk down to the Capitol and demand Mike Pence send the certification vote back for a recount to spare the nation an "illegitimate" President Biden. (Biden reportedly has NSFW feelings toward Trump as well.) While he did specify that the protest should be done "peacefully and patriotically" (per NPR), Trump also warned, "[I]f you don't fight like hell, you're not going to have a country anymore."
Trump wants to get back into the ultimate front seat
Another part of the limo driver's testimony also seems to bolster the argument against Trump. The driver testified (via Politico) about a conversation the then-president had with Robert Engel, his lead Secret Service agent. Engel told Trump a number of people attending the protest rally had been stopped at the checkpoint for carrying prohibited items. Though Trump reportedly wasn't concerned about his own safety, it could be argued he knew the crowd was prepared to be less than peaceful. And if he knew the protesters were potentially violent, anything he said to encourage them could be considered incitement.
It remains to be seen whether this evidence will lead to a new finding by the subcommittee, and if so, what it will mean for the ongoing legal drama. The original January 6 commission determined Donald Trump's actions warranted criminal prosecution, and the former POTUS is still awaiting trial on four related charges, including obstruction of an official proceeding and conspiracy to defraud the U.S. through his claims of election fraud. At this writing, Trump was waiting for the Supreme Court to rule on his claim that presidents have total immunity from the consequences of actions they perform in office. It's a long shot, to be sure, but if by chance the court finds in his favor, it would be his ultimate get-out-of-jail-free card and an easier path to re-election in November.