The House committee investigating the events of the Capitol riot on Jan. 6, 2021, interviewed the Secret Service’s spokesman on Monday as members work to finish its final report by the end of the year.
Anthony Guglielmi, chief spokesman for the Secret Service, appeared before the committee and discussed, in part, his role in issuing a statement that undercut the testimony of Cassidy Hutchinson, an aide to former President Donald Trump’s White House chief of staff, Mark Meadows, sources told the Washington Post.
Hutchinson claimed during her testimony over the summer that Trump knew some of his supporters were armed when he told them to march toward the Capitol.
JAN. 6 COMMITTEE SUBPOENAS DONALD TRUMP
She also said that the deputy chief of staff and liaison to the Secret Service, Anthony Ornato, told her that the president was so “irate” that the Secret Service would not drive him to the Capitol that he allegedly grabbed the wheel and an agent.
Shortly after Hutchinson’s testimony, an anonymous Secret Service agent told CNN in an interview that agents were prepared to “say under oath that the incident itself did not occur,” referring to Trump’s actions.
Guglielmi had refused to confirm the CNN report, the Los Angeles Times reported, but did say that the federal agency was fully cooperating with the House committee.
On Monday, Guglielmi was asked to walk through how he chose to describe the accounts made by Ornato and Trump’s head of service detail, Robert Engel, as well as the agency’s rebuttal to Hutchinson’s claims, per the Washington Post.
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The committee is expected to wrap up its investigation by the end of the year with a final report. Trump was subpoenaed on Oct. 21 to testify before the committee, but he has remained tight-lipped on whether or not he will comply.
Vice Chairwoman Liz Cheney (R-WY) said in an interview with PBS on Tuesday that the committee was in negotiations with Trump’s lawyers about testimony that could stretch across multiple days. He has until Friday to comply with the document demand and Nov. 14 for the deposition.
