Grand jury rejects DOJ proposal to indict ex-Trump WH aide Cassidy Hutchinson: reports

A federal grand jury in Washington, D.C., has rejected a Justice Department request to indict former White House aide Cassidy Hutchinson in connection with her congressional testimony about President Donald Trump’s conduct during the Jan. 6, 2021, mob attack on the U.S. Capitol, The Washington Post reported Tuesday.

MS NOW confirmed the report and said prosecutors with the DOJ’s Civil Rights Division sought to charge Hutchinson with a crime based on claims she made false statements, citing two people with knowledge of the matter.

DOJ lead attorney Neville Hedley told Magistrate Judge Zia Faruqui in open court Tuesday afternoon that the grand jury rejected the requested indictment without naming Hutchinson as a target, according to the Post.

It is extremely rare for a grand jury to decline to indict when prosecutors present evidence of alleged crimes.

But federal prosecutors in Washington, since Trump returned to office in January 2025, have repeatedly failed to obtain the grand jury indictment they sought.

In recent weeks, prosecutors filed separate criminal complaints in U.S. District Court in Washington against former FBI Director James Comey and two former FBI officials, with charging documents that do not constitute grand jury indictments. In both cases, the alleged behavior occurred years earlier. Typically, in such cases, prosecutors seek an indictment before a grand jury.

The DOJ used a document known as “information” to charge him on October 5 with retaining or sharing national defense information with a person not authorized to have it.

Comey’s lawyers accused the DOJ of using this method in an attempt to suspend the 10-year statute of limitations. The attorneys asked a judge to dismiss the case, saying the deadline to get a grand jury indictment was Oct. 5, the day the information was filed.

Hutchinson testified in June 2022 before the House select committee that investigated the Jan. 6 riot at the Capitol by a mob of Trump supporters, whose attack delayed for hours the confirmation of Joe Biden’s electoral victory in the 2020 election.

She said that after Trump spoke at a rally outside the White House that preceded the attack, then-White House official Tony Ornato asked him, “Did you hear what happened in (the president’s vehicle) The Beast?”

She testified that Ornato told her that when Trump got in the car, his then-chief of staff Mark Meadows gave her the impression that they were going to the Capitol, as he had claimed in his speech to supporters at the rally.

When Robert Engel, Trump’s security chief, said the president couldn’t go there because the area wasn’t secure, Trump “had a very strong, very angry response to that,” Hutchinson said, according to Ornato.

“Tony described him as being angry,” Hutchinson said, noting that Trump said something like, “I’m the fucking president, take me to the Capitol now,” according to Ornato.

When Engel again refused to drive him to the Capitol, Trump “reached toward the front of the vehicle to grab the steering wheel. Mr. Engel grabbed his arm and said, ‘Sir, you need to take your hand off the steering wheel. We’re going back to the West Wing,'” Hutchinson testified.

Trump “then used his free hand to lunge at Bobby Engel,” Hutchinson said of what Ornato told him.

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