Grand Jury Blocks Charges Against Former White House Aide

WASHINGTON. Federal prosecutors failed to secure an indictment against Cassidy Hutchinson on Tuesday after a grand jury declined to authorize charging her. Two people familiar with the matter told The Associated Press that the panel rejected the request from prosecutors, who did not disclose the specific allegations they had sought to bring. The proceeding took place in Washington.

Hutchinson served as a special assistant to Mark Meadows, then the White House chief of staff. In 2022, she testified before a House committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol. Republican lawmakers later accused her of lying under oath during that testimony. Her account described Donald Trump trying to bypass security screenings for armed protesters at a rally that morning and reaching for the steering wheel of the presidential SUV after Secret Service agents declined to drive him to the Capitol. She also testified that Trump declined to intervene while a crowd chanted "Hang Mike Pence."

The Justice Department has not moved against other individuals connected to the events at the Capitol. The House impeached Trump in 2021 on charges that he incited the mob, but the Senate acquitted him. Under President Joe Biden, the Justice Department charged Trump with felonies related to efforts to overturn the 2020 election results, though special counsel Jack Smith dropped the case after Trump won the presidency in 2024.

Hutchinson acknowledged during her testimony that she was not present inside the SUV and relayed the account of a White House security official. In March 2024, House Republicans released a transcript of the Select Committee's interview with the Secret Service officer who drove the vehicle. That transcript contradicted parts of Hutchinson's description but confirmed that Trump attempted to join the crowd at the Capitol. The driver testified that he did not witness the struggle Hutchinson described and stated that Trump "never grabbed the steering wheel."

Hutchinson told the committee that members of Trump's circle offered job opportunities and financial assistance while she cooperated with the investigation. She also said her own lawyer, a former ethics counsel in the Trump White House, advised that "the less you remember, the better." She stated, "It feels ridiculous, because in my heart I knew where my loyalties lied, and my loyalties lied with the truth," adding, "And I never wanted to diverge from that."