Hutchinson testimony links White House to Oath Keepers, Proud Boys
NOTE: Server update this morning is playing hell with posting on time.
Much covfefe over the Trump/Secret Service/SUV incident that Cassidy Hutchinson tesified that White House deputy chief of staff Tony Ornato related to her on Jan. 6. Lost in the shiny-shiny Trumpers are using to smear her Tuesday testimony before the House Jan. 6 committee is what it reveals the Secret Service knew that morning.
Marcy Wheeler is on it: “they got warnings about plans to occupy buildings in DC and, implicitly, warnings about Proud Boy involvement.”
Plus, Hutchinson’s testimony links Trump to the coup plotters and the militias.
Cheney: US Secret Service was looking at similar information and watching the planned demonstrations. In fact, their Intelligence Division sent several emails to White House personnel, like Deputy Chief of Staff Tony Ornato and the head of the President’s protective detail Robert Engel, including certain materials listing events like those on the screen.
Cheney: The White House continued to receive updates about planned demonstrations, including information regarding the Proud Boys organizing and planning to attend events on January 6. Although Ms. Hutchinson has no detailed knowledge of any planning involving the Proud Boys for January 6, she did note this:
Hutchinson: I recall hearing the word[s], “Oath Keeper,” hearing the word[s], “Proud Boys,” closer to the planning of the January 6 rally when Mr. Giuliani would be around.
Ornato and Chief of Staff Mark Meadows had had a conversation about possible violence on Jan. 6. Ornato knew some among the Trump rally crowd remained outside the controlled area to avoid the metal detectors. Texts displayed by the committee confirm that.
Wheeler continues:
Importantly, Cheney mentioned something about this text exchange that doesn’t appear in the texts shown on the screen: a discussion between the two of them — Hutchinson and Ornato — about an “OTR,” an “off the record” movement to get Trump to the Capitol. The Committee appears to be withholding precisely what those texts say — involving Trump personally, and so colorably covered under Executive Privilege.
That may not be the only thing the Committee withheld from its presentation: note in my transcription above that Cheney doesn’t say Ornato and Engel received the warnings that were flashed on the screen. She says they received, “certain materials listing events like those on the screen.” [my emphasis] Particularly given the reports that the Committee met in a secure facility in advance of this hearing, that phrasing could allow for other records, records too sensitive to show publicly, tying the Proud Boys to plans to occupy buildings on January 6.
On reports that the Jan. 6 committee met in the SCIF before the hearing:
Rep. Jamie Raskin, (D-Md.), the committee’s constitutional scholar, was asked whether there was a classified national security angle the panel was wrangling with.
“No comment,” he said.
Moments later, another commission member, Rep. Stephanie Murphy (D-Fl.), was also asked about a Tuesday morning meeting the panel was said to have held in a Secure Compartmented Information Facility, or SCIF, in the basement of the U.S. Capitol grounds. Murphy also refused to answer.
Wheeler bullet-points facts that point to what the committee has yet to explore publicly:
- Both Engel and Ornato had warnings of plans to occupy buildings
- Hutchinson linked Rudy Giuliani in advance of the attack to both militias that attacked the Capitol
- Ornato discussed these warnings in advance with Mark Meadows, who pushed Hutchinson away twice during the early moments of the attack
- In spite of foreknowledge of a plan to occupy buildings and the involvement of militias, Ornato nevertheless continued to plan to take Trump to the Capitol
Readers do not need reminding that multiple Oath Keepers have pleaded guilty to seditious conspiracy over the Jan. 6 attack; still others have been indicted on that charge. Proud Boys leader Henry “Enrique” Tarrio and four others drew new indictments this month of seditious conspiracy and other charges related to Jan. 6. (New Zealand on Thursday designated the Proud Boys a terrorist organization.)
Glenn Kirschner, a former assistant U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia, calls Hutchinson’s testimony “a bit of a game-changer” by revealing that Trump knew the crowd for his rally came armed.
CBC:
Hutchinson’s testimony also lends support to both the conspiracy to obstruct congressional proceedings charge, and seditious conspiracy, Kirschner said.
“He’s probably bought himself a greater certainty that he will be criminally charged,” Kirschner said.
Danya Perry, a former deputy attorney general for the State of New York and former assistant United States attorney for the Southern District of New York, says she agrees Hutchinson really “moved the ball” on a potential charge of seditious conspiracy.
[…]
She asks, rhetorically: Were his actions “qualitatively or substantively” different from those of the Proud Boys or OathKeepers?
“I think, what we saw, they’re of a kind.”
If the committee produces more evidence of coordination between the White House, the Oath Keepers and the Proud Boys, “greater certainty” could turn into an actual indictment. TBD.
About half of Americans (48%) already believe Trump should face charges and 20% “don’t know enough to have an opinion.” Yet.
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