Jan. 6 hearing witness: Irate Trump grabbed wheel, demanded to go to Capitol
Cassidy Hutchinson said Trump was warned about potential violence, crimes.
The House select committee investigating the U.S. Capitol attack heard stunning testimony on Tuesday from Cassidy Hutchinson, a former top aide to then-White House chief of staff Mark Meadows.
She told the committee and an international TV audience that then-President Donald Trump was warned about potential violence and crimes, that he wanted supporters with weapons let into his Jan. 6 rally, and that she was told he then demanded his security detail take him to the Capitol, going so far as to grab the wheel of the presidential SUV.
This was the sixth hearing this month investigating what the committee says was the conspiracy by Trump and his allies to overturn the election.
Here is how the hearing unfolded:
Surprise hearing signals committee's urgency
The House select committee will convene Tuesday afternoon for a surprise public hearing, signaling apparent urgency among members to reveal further findings from their year-long inquiry.
The hearing, scheduled to begin at 1 p.m. ET, will see the committee "present recently obtained evidence and receive witness testimony," the group said in a news release Monday.
Former White House aide Cassidy Hutchinson, who was a top adviser to Donald Trump's last chief of staff, Mark Meadows, is expected to testify, sources familiar with the matter told ABC News. Punchbowl News first reported her appearance.
Hutchinson is expected to put a voice to many of the internal White House interactions involving the events of Jan. 6 and offer significant insight into Meadows' actions and interactions with Trump.
Witness: White House was warned 'Congress itself is the target on the 6th'
The bombshell information the committee is unfolding through Cassidy Hutchinson's testimony is that the Trump administration and Trump himself knew about the potential for violence before Jan. 6.
"I recall hearing the word 'Oath Keeper' and hearing the word 'Proud Boys' closer to the planning of the January 6 rally when Mr. Giuliani would be around," Hutchinson said in a taped deposition played by Vice Chair Rep. Liz Cheney.
Cheney then displayed a Capitol Police bulletin on Jan. 3 warning, "targets of the pro-Trump supporters are not necessarily the counter-protesters as they were previously, but rather Congress itself is the target on the 6th."
Hutchinson also recalled receiving a call from then-national security adviser Robert O'Brien, after the Capitol Police bulletin, asking if he could speak with Meadows about the potential violence. She wasn't sure if that call ever happened.