Grand jury declines to indict former White House aide Cassidy Hutchinson

A federal grand jury in Washington rejected a request by the Justice Department to indict Cassidy Hutchinson on Tuesday. The decision marks a failure for prosecutors who sought to charge the former White House staffer based on her testimony about the events of January 6, 2021. Two people familiar with the matter told The Associated Press that the jury did not return an indictment.

The details of the specific allegations against Hutchinson were not immediately clear. However, Republican lawmakers had previously accused her of lying under oath. Her testimony came before a House committee investigating the insurrection at the U.S. Capitol. That attack occurred when a mob of Trump supporters stormed the building to stop the certification of his election loss to Democrat Joe Biden.

Hutchinson served as a special assistant to Mark Meadows, who was White House Chief of Staff at the time. Her hearing took place in 2022 after the committee announced it just 24 hours prior. Because of her proximity to power, her account was viewed as a strong piece of evidence. She described a president who was angry and defiant as he tried to let armed protesters avoid security screenings at a rally that morning.

During her testimony, Hutchinson stated that Trump grabbed at the steering wheel of the presidential SUV when the Secret Service refused to let him go to the Capitol. She also testified that Trump declined to intervene when the crowd began chanting for Vice President Mike Pence. Although she was not present for the SUV incident, she said she was relaying information from a White House security official.

President Trump disputed much of her account on his social media platform, Truth Social. He labeled her a total phony and bad news. The description of the altercation inside the vehicle was particularly controversial because Hutchinson acknowledged she had only secondhand knowledge. Her account was quickly challenged by other evidence.

In March 2024, House Republicans released a transcript of an interview with the Secret Service officer who drove the presidential SUV. That driver said he did not see the altercation Hutchinson described. He stated that Trump never grabbed the steering wheel and did not lunge toward the front seat. The transcript corroborated some of Hutchinson's claims, including Trump's attempt to join the crowd at the Capitol, but contradicted the physical struggle she described.

Hutchinson alleged that members of Trump's inner circle offered her job opportunities and financial assistance while she cooperated with the committee. She also testified that her lawyer, a former ethics counsel in the White House, told her that the less she remembered, the better. She told the committee that she never wanted to diverge from the truth.

The case against Hutchinson is part of the Justice Department's broader effort to charge individuals perceived as adversaries of the Republican president. The House impeached Trump in 2021 on allegations that he incited the mob, but the Senate later acquitted him. The Justice Department under President Biden charged Trump with felony offenses for illegally working to overturn his 2020 loss. Special counsel Jack Smith abandoned that case after Trump's 2024 victory, citing the policy that sitting presidents cannot face criminal prosecution.

Hutchinson is a native of Pennington, New Jersey. Before her role in the White House Office of Legislative Affairs, she interned for Republicans, including Representative Steve Scalise of Louisiana and Senator Ted Cruz of Texas. The Justice Department did not immediately comment on the grand jury's decision on Tuesday.