<mediadc-video-embed data-state="{"cms.site.owner":{"_ref":"00000161-3486-d333-a9e9-76c6fbf30000","_type":"00000161-3461-dd66-ab67-fd6b93390000"},"cms.content.publishDate":1656522759001,"cms.content.publishUser":{"_ref":"00000172-ebac-d265-adff-fffc847c0001","_type":"00000161-3461-dd66-ab67-fd6b933a0007"},"cms.content.updateDate":1656522759001,"cms.content.updateUser":{"_ref":"00000172-ebac-d265-adff-fffc847c0001","_type":"00000161-3461-dd66-ab67-fd6b933a0007"},"rawHtml":"
var _bp = _bp||[]; _bp.push({ "div": "Brid_56522491", "obj": {"id":"27789","width":"16","height":"9","video":"1043215"} }); rn","_id":"00000181-b034-da7c-a7c7-f174ab8d0000","_type":"2f5a8339-a89a-3738-9cd2-3ddf0c8da574"}”>Video EmbedThe allegation that a Secret Service agent restrained former President Donald Trump as he tried to take control of the wheel of his presidential SUV on Jan. 6 is farcical and absurd, a former agent told the Washington Examiner.
Cassidy Hutchinson, a former aide to Trump White House chief of staff Mark Meadows, testified Tuesday that she was told that Robert Engel, the head of Trump’s security detail, had grabbed the president’s arm as he reached forward from the back seat and tried to take control of the steering wheel to change the vehicle’s course to the Capitol building on Jan. 6. Trump, who was irate that his motorcade was instead going back to the White House, then lunged at Engel’s clavicle, Hutchinson said.
SECRET SERVICE WILL RESPOND ‘ON THE RECORD’ TO TRUMP MOTORCADE ALLEGATIONS
Konstantinos “Gus” Dimitrelos is a cybersecurity expert commissioned by the Washington Examiner to examine Hunter Biden’s abandoned laptop forensically. But he is also a former Secret Service agent who was the physical security lead at over 100 events for former Presidents Bill Clinton and George W. Bush between 1999 and 2004, and he believes Hutchinson’s allegation is nonsensical.
“There is not a chance in hell a Secret Service agent would put their hands on a protectee. Never,” Dimitrelos said. “We would not touch them. If they decided to lunge at us or hit us, there is no retaliation.”
“We would not put our hands on our protectee,” he added. “That’s not what we do. We’re there to protect them, not to control them or to assault them.”
Hutchinson said she was not in the vehicle when the supposed altercation took place. She said Tony Ornato, then the White House’s deputy chief of staff for operations who witnessed the altercation in person, told her the story while Engel was in the room. Engel, she added, did not dispute the story.
However, within hours of her testimony before the Jan. 6 committee, multiple reporters said they were told that both Engel and the driver of the SUV are prepared to testify under oath that Trump did not grab the steering wheel or assault any agent on Jan. 6.
“The Secret Service has been cooperating fully with the select committee since its inception in spring of 2021, and we will continue to do so by responding formally and on the record to the committee regarding new allegations that surfaced in today’s testimony,” Secret Service Chief of Communications Anthony Guglielmi told the Washington Examiner.
Dimitrelos said Trump physically could not have reached from the back seat of the SUV and taken control of its steering wheel.
“This is a problem with the way the vehicle is designed,” Dimitrelos said, noting that he regularly performed security sweeps of the presidential SUV for bugs as well as physical, chemical, and biological threats, during his time with the Secret Service Technical Security Division.
“You’re talking about an armored vehicle, which isn’t a normal vehicle,” he said. “This isn’t designed the way an SUV is designed. It’s not designed for someone in the back seat to take control of the steering wheel. It’s just not.”
The former Secret Service agent added that the Jan. 6 committee made no apparent effort to verify Hutchinson’s account of the incident independently before running the allegation on national television.
“The individuals who were ‘assaulted.’ You just ask them. And they’re going to tell you, ‘no,’ because it didn’t happen,” Dimitrelos said. “That’s a simple verification. The fact that wasn’t done in preparing for the testimony, it’s beyond anything I’ve ever seen in a classified, criminal, or civil proceeding.”
Dimitrelos added that a paper trail should exist showing all the communications that took place among the participants of the presidential motorcade that day. Those records would prove if Trump made a spontaneous request to divert course from the White House to the Capitol building, he said.
“If it exists, everybody has it. Secret Service has it, White House Communications Agency and every division in the Secret Service,” Dimitrelos said. “Time of departure, logistics, whether its impromptu, spontaneous event or not — everybody would have that information.”
It’s no secret that Trump wanted to go to the Capitol building on Jan. 6. He said as much during his speech at a park near the White House just before rioters breached the Capitol.
“And after this, we’re going to walk down, and I’ll be there with you,” Trump said. “We’re going to walk down. Anyone you want, but I think right here, we’re going to walk down to the Capitol.”
NBC News Chief White House Correspondent Peter Alexander tweeted Wednesday that a source with the Secret Service told him that the agents in the vehicle that day “do not deny that Trump was irate and demanded they drive to the Capitol.”
Dimitrelos said that if Trump put his foot down, the Secret Service would have transported him to the Capitol.
“The president can do whatever he wants,” Dimitrelos said. “If he wanted to go to the Capitol, he would have gone to the Capitol. Secret Service would have taken him to the Capitol. Secret Service would have advised him not to go because of security reasons.”
CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER
“Whatever the situation is, we are there to give a recommendation on security and route availability to get to wherever he wants to get to,” he added. “If he wanted to get to the Capitol, he would have gone to the Capitol. Everybody in the Secret Service knows that. There’s no question about it.”
Trump called Hutchinson’s testimony a “fake story” on Truth Social on Tuesday.
