Republicans demand an explanation from Cassidy Hutchinson for substantial changes in her testimony before the Committee that is investigating the January 6 attacks
Conservative Congressman Barry Loudermilk claims that recordings of the former Trump aide's appearances have been deleted.
Republican congressmen Ralph Norman and Barry Loudermilk demanded that Cassidy Hutchinson, a former aide to Donald Trump, explain why she has made significant changes in her testimony about what happened on January 6. Hutchinson's statements are key in the Committee that investigated the attacks. Loudermilk, who chairs the House Oversight Subcommittee, explained that Hutchinson may be called to testify due to the recent changes in her testimony.
"The errata sheet and other evidence has been recovered recently by Loudermilk's House Administration Committee Oversight subcommittee, which is the successor panel to the Democrats' Jan. 6 committee. But some key evidence is missing," explained Just The News which reviewed the documents.
For example, one of the significant changes is Hutchinson's testimony when she described an alleged incident between the president and his driver after he asked to be taken to the Capitol. In the first statement, Hutchinson described the vehicle as a limousine and has now corrected her comments and stated that it was an SUV. In addition, she added that the then-president got angry with the driver.
"This part of the story was not in her original testimony from February 23, 2022, four months before her public, televised testimony in front of the January 6 committee. Then, about three months after her public testimony, Hutchinson submitted the errata sheets to correct the record and included the story she had omitted back in February. That same month, Hutchinson had also provided new details to the committee about this incident in her June 2022 closed-door interview," Just The News reported.
"Sudden and substantial changes"
In a different testimony, she told the committee that she did not remember if, on the day of the attack, there were reports of weapons in the crowd. According to Just The News, in her correction, she claims "there were reports of firearms at the rally site."
Upon learning of the 15-page long corrections document, Barry Loudermilk said Congress needs to question the former Trump aide about why she decided to privately make “sudden and substantial” changes to her testimony months after she testified before the January 6 Committee.
"Cassidy Hutchinson made sudden and substantive changes to her testimony months after testifying in front of the J6 Select Committee. We have some serious questions about these changes," Loudermilk wrote on his Twitter account.
"This administration is running over our democracy"
In that regard, Loudermilk told Just The News that the January 6 Committee destroyed or disposed of videotapes of transcribed interviews conducted with Hutchison before her nationally televised testimony in June 2022. For this reason, he explained, the typed transcripts and their typos are the only official record of the statements. The congressman explained that they asked Bennie Thompson, chairman of the committee, for information, but the Democrat said that they did not keep the recordings.
"But according to House rules, you have to preserve any data and information and documents that are used in an official proceeding, which they did. They actually aired portions of these tapes on their televised hearings, which means they had to keep those," Loudermilk said.
Ralph Norman had a similar reaction. He said that the situation should not be ignored. The Republican insisted that, in his opinion, the current administration is running over democracy. "Covering this up is just a tragedy for the American people that’s got to be exposed and there has to be consequences for this. This administration is running over our democracy, our Constitution," Norman said in an interview with JustTheNews.
Trump's former aid has said that if Trump wins the 2024 elections, in her opinion, he will be a danger to democracy. "If Donald Trump is elected president again in 2024, I do fear that it will be the last election where we’re voting for democracy because if he is elected again, I don’t think we’ll be voting under the same Constitution," Hutchinson said in a conversation with Jen Psaki, Joe Biden's former press secretary.