The Other Shoe Drops
Cassidy Hutchinson is the surprise witness scheduled to testify this afternoon in a hastily arranged hearing of the House Jan. 6 committee.
The committee wasn’t expected to hold any additional hearings until next month, but it hurriedly announced yesterday a new hearing today, without revealing who the witness would be.
Who Is Hutchinson And What Does She Know?
The aide to White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows claims to have been present for multiple key meetings and events between Election Day 2020 and Jan. 6, 2021.
For more on Hutchinson:
Punchbowl: “Having covered Meadows and the Trump White House, we can tell you that Hutchison was in the middle of almost everything that happened in the West Wing, so she’s a hugely important witness. Count on it.”
Playbook: “Hutchinson was always going to be a crucial witness, and seemed likely to go public in one of the committee’s July hearings.”
Politico: “It’s unclear why the panel expedited Hutchinson’s hearing, or whether she will appear alongside other significant witnesses.”
Let’s Clear Up Some Confusion
We’re getting a clearer picture of what DOJ is up to in the Jan. 6 probes. This gets a little murky so I’ll try to keep it simple.
There appear to be two distinct DOJ investigations under way into the “higher ups” involved in Jan. 6: (1) a typical grand jury investigation that seems to be focused on the fake Trump electors scheme; and (2) a DOJ inspector general probe of misconduct by department officials.
Those two separate and distinct probes got jumbled together in recent days in the coverage of the raid on former Trump DOJ official Jeffrey Clark’s home and the seizure of John Eastman’s cell phone. Those two overt law enforcement activities happened on the same day last week and seem to be tied to the IG’s investigation and not the grand jury probe.
Eastman in particular is highly exercised by the seizure of his cell phone by federal agents while he was at a restaurant in New Mexico. Clark, as you’ll recall, was loudly complaining about not even being able to change out of his pjs while federal agents searched his home.
Eastman is not a DOJ official and wasn’t at the time of the election subversion effort, so he appears to be a witness in the IG probe, not a target. Clark, on the other hand, was a DOJ official at the relevant time and was deeply involved in the coup-ing.
Stay tuned on this.
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