Grand Jury Refuses to Indict Ex-White House Aide Cassidy Hutchinson

A grand jury in Washington turned down a Justice Department request to indict former White House aide Cassidy Hutchinson on Tuesday (Oct 27), two people familiar with the matter told The Associated Press. The Cassidy Hutchinson grand jury outcome was described in the report as the latest setback in the department’s efforts to charge people seen as adversaries of President Donald Trump.

Cassidy Hutchinson grand jury decision

The two sources spoke to AP on condition of anonymity because they were not authorised to discuss the matter publicly. The grand jurors rejected prosecutors’ request to return an indictment against Hutchinson.

Details of what prosecutors had alleged were not immediately clear, according to the report. Republican lawmakers had previously accused Hutchinson of lying under oath when she testified in 2022 before the House select committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the US Capitol.

The report carried no on-record comment from the Justice Department, Hutchinson or her lawyer on the grand jury’s decision.

Her 2022 testimony on Jan. 6

Hutchinson served as a special assistant to Mark Meadows, Trump’s chief of staff, and earlier worked in the White House Office of Legislative Affairs.

At a June 2022 committee hearing announced only 24 hours in advance, she described Trump as angry and defiant on Jan. 6. She testified that he wanted armed supporters allowed to skip security screening at a rally, that he grabbed at the steering wheel of the presidential SUV when the Secret Service refused to drive him to the Capitol, and that he declined to step in as rioters chanted “Hang Mike Pence.”

She acknowledged she was relaying what she had been told and had no first-hand knowledge of the SUV episode. Her account was quickly disputed. The Secret Service officer who drove the vehicle later told the committee, in an interview released in March 2024, that Trump never grabbed the steering wheel.

Trump at the time attacked Hutchinson on his Truth Social platform, dismissing her as a fraud. Hutchinson also alleged that people in Trump’s inner circle dangled job opportunities and financial help while she was cooperating with the committee.

What remains unclear

The AP report did not say whether prosecutors plan to seek an indictment again or drop the matter.

The report noted that the House impeached Trump in 2021 over the Capitol attack and the Senate acquitted him. It also said then-special counsel Jack Smith abandoned the federal election case against Trump after his 2024 election victory, in line with longstanding Justice Department policy that sitting presidents cannot be criminally prosecuted.

#latestmalaysia

New: Comey Hit With Espionage Act Charges in Third DOJ Case