Washington, D.C.: Grand Jury Refuses to Indict Former White House Aide Cassidy Hutchinson

A federal grand jury in Washington on Tuesday rejected a Justice Department request to indict Cassidy Hutchinson, the former White House aide whose testimony to Congress in 2022 described President Donald Trump's conduct before and during the January 6, 2021 attack on the U.S. Capitol. The Associated Press and CNN each reported the refusal on Tuesday, citing two people familiar with the matter who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss a grand jury case publicly.

What happened in court

The outcome surfaced in open court on Tuesday afternoon. Neville Hedley, acting senior litigation counsel in the Justice Department's Civil Rights Division, told U.S. Magistrate Judge Zia M. Faruqui that the grand jury had not concurred on the proposed indictment, The Washington Post reported. Hedley did not name Hutchinson in court, and CNN, MS NOW and CBS also confirmed the outcome.

MS NOW reported that Civil Rights Division prosecutors had sought a false statements charge. The precise statements put to the jurors have not been publicly detailed. Hutchinson's attorneys did not respond to requests for comment on Tuesday, and the department's specific allegations were not immediately clear, the AP reported. Republican lawmakers had accused her of lying under oath in her 2022 testimony.

A grand jury refusal, recorded as a no bill, is not an acquittal. It does not bar prosecutors from presenting the same matter to a grand jury again.

The testimony at the center of the case

Hutchinson served as a special assistant to Mark Meadows, Trump's chief of staff, and her proximity to power made her June 28, 2022 testimony at a surprise hearing of the House committee investigating January 6 particularly powerful. She testified that Trump knew some supporters were armed that morning and still wanted security screening loosened. She said she heard Trump say something similar to, "I don't effing care that they have weapons. They're not here to hurt me. Take the effing mags away. Let my people in," CNN reported.

She also relayed an account she said she heard from White House security official Tony Ornato, in which Trump lunged toward a Secret Service member and tried to grab the steering wheel after being told he could not go to the Capitol. She acknowledged she had not witnessed that episode herself. Ornato and others disputed it, and in March 2024 House Republicans released a transcript of the committee's interview with the presidential SUV driver, who said Trump never grabbed the steering wheel but confirmed Trump tried to join the crowd at the Capitol. Trump denied much of her account at the time and called her a "total phony," the AP reported.

Doubts inside the department

The case had become a point of controversy inside the Justice Department, CNN reported. Some employees believed there was not enough evidence for a viable criminal case and worried it would be seen as targeting another of Trump's perceived enemies. Lawmakers from both parties had urged the department to drop the investigation, including Republican Senator Bill Cassidy, who called it an act of "lawfare" directed by the president. Former special counsel Jack Smith told Congress in a closed door interview this year that Hutchinson was not a powerful witness in his investigation, in part because many of her accounts were secondhand, CNN reported.

The AP described the refusal as the latest setback in the Justice Department's efforts to charge perceived adversaries of the Republican president.