A Washington grand jury refused to indict Cassidy Hutchinson after the Justice Department sought charges over whether she lied to Congress about President Trump and January 6.
Story Highlights
- A federal grand jury in Washington, D.C., turned down prosecutors’ request to charge Hutchinson, according to people familiar with the case.
- The case centered on her 2022 testimony that Trump grabbed at the steering wheel of his SUV on January 6, 2021.
- The Secret Service agent who drove the SUV has said he did not see Trump lunge for the front seat.
- Hutchinson stands by her testimony. Prosecutors can still take the case to a grand jury again.
Grand Jury Says No
On Tuesday, October 27, a federal grand jury in Washington rejected the Justice Department’s request to indict Hutchinson, a former White House aide, according to people familiar with the matter. A grand jury is a panel of ordinary citizens who hear the government’s evidence in private and decide whether there is enough to bring charges. An indictment is the formal charge that starts a criminal case.
Prosecutors had been presenting evidence to the panel since early October. The question was whether Hutchinson lied to Congress, according to reports. The grand jury heard evidence about possible false statements she made to the House committee that investigated the January 6 attack on the Capitol. The Justice Department has not said publicly what charges it wanted, and it did not respond to a request for comment. The investigation was run by the department’s Civil Rights Division, according to reports.
The Steering Wheel Story
Hutchinson became the committee’s star witness in 2022. She testified that Trump was angry when the Secret Service refused to take him to the Capitol after his rally on January 6, 2021, and that he grabbed at the steering wheel of the presidential SUV.
She said at the time that she was passing along what a White House security official had told her. She did not see the moment herself.
Her account was challenged. In March 2024, House Republicans released a transcript of an interview with the Secret Service agent who drove the SUV. He said Trump was insistent about going to the Capitol, but he rejected the steering wheel claim. “I didn’t see him, you know, lunge to try to get into the front seat at all,” the driver said.
Trump has long denied her story. In 2022 he called Hutchinson a “total phony” and “bad news.” Hutchinson stands by what she told the committee.
What a “No” From a Grand Jury Means
The refusal is a setback for the government, but it does not end the matter for good. Under federal law, a grand jury cannot be forced to indict, and prosecutors are free to bring the same case back to the same grand jury or to a new one.
The vote also does not decide whether her testimony was true or false. It means only that this panel of citizens was not convinced there was enough evidence to charge her.
Hutchinson had been under investigation for weeks. A federal court order on September 24 named her as the subject of a Justice Department criminal investigation. Her lawyers said then that she would use her Fifth Amendment right, which lets a person refuse to answer questions that could be used against her in a criminal case, if she was forced to testify in a separate lawsuit.
Why This Matters
Hutchinson’s steering wheel story became one of the best-known moments of the January 6 hearings, and House Republicans used the driver’s account to challenge it. The Justice Department set out to test that story in front of a grand jury. On Tuesday, October 27, the citizens on that panel declined to bring charges, and the decision on whether to try again rests with prosecutors.
Sources:
cbsnews.com, apnews.com, post-gazette.com, cnbc.com, washingtonpost.com, cbsnews.com, rmb.reuters.com, congress.gov
