A federal grand jury in Washington, D.C. has refused to indict former White House aide Cassidy Hutchinson on charges of lying to Congress about Donald Trump's conduct during the January 6, 2021, Capitol riot. Justice Department prosecutors tried and failed on Tuesday to secure the indictment, according to two people familiar with the matter, bringing a years-long investigation into Hutchinson's testimony to an abrupt and public setback for the government.
A Justice Department attorney told a judge that the grand jury submitted what is known as a “non-concurrence,” meaning the panel rejected the indictment prosecutors sought, according to CNN. The outcome was also confirmed by ABC News, which reported the panel declined to indict Hutchinson on charges of lying to Congress. The Associated Press, writing for The Virginian-Pilot, reported the Justice Department failed to secure the indictment based on accounts from two people familiar with the proceedings.
What Prosecutors Were Investigating
The exact allegations prosecutors brought to the grand jury were not immediately clear, as The Guardian reported. The investigation had centered on whether Hutchinson made false statements to Congress during her 2022 testimony before the House select committee investigating the Capitol attack. Per the Virginian-Pilot's reporting, Republican lawmakers had accused Hutchinson of lying under oath during that 2022 testimony. The Justice Department's Civil Rights Division had been handling the investigation, according to CBS News.
Hutchinson served as special assistant to Mark Meadows, Trump's White House chief of staff, and also worked in the White House Office of Legislative Affairs, per the Virginian-Pilot. Before joining the Trump administration, she interned for Rep. Steve Scalise of Louisiana and Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas, and was born in Pennington, New Jersey, the outlet noted. Her 2022 testimony before the House committee became some of the most consequential public testimony of the entire Jan. 6 investigation.
The Disputed Testimony at the Center of the Case
Hutchinson testified that Trump and Meadows were warned on Jan. 6 that some of his supporters were carrying weapons to the Capitol, according to CBS News. She also testified, per the Virginian-Pilot, that Trump tried to let armed protesters avoid security screenings at a rally and that he declined to intervene as violence escalated at the Capitol.
The most contested piece of her account involved an alleged confrontation inside the presidential SUV. Hutchinson testified that Trump grabbed at the steering wheel after the Secret Service refused to let him go to the Capitol, according to the Guardian. But Hutchinson did not witness that alleged confrontation firsthand; she said she learned about it from another White House official, according to MS NOW.
The Secret Service officer who drove the presidential SUV that day later disputed key elements of that account. In a transcript House Republicans released in March 2024, the driver said he did not see the altercation Hutchinson described and that Trump “never grabbed the steering wheel,” according to NBC Washington. Per the Virginian-Pilot, the driver also said he did not see Trump lunge toward the front seat. The same driver's transcript corroborated other aspects of Hutchinson's account, including Trump's attempted approach to the Capitol mob, even as it contradicted the SUV details, the Virginian-Pilot reported.
Trump's Response and Hutchinson's Defense
Trump denied much of Hutchinson's testimony on Truth Social at the time, calling her a “total phony” and “bad news,” NBC Washington reported. Hutchinson, for her part, alleged that members of Trump's inner circle offered her job opportunities and financial assistance while she was cooperating with the House committee, according to the Virginian-Pilot. She testified that her own lawyer at one point told her “the less you remember, the better.” Hutchinson has said her loyalties were with the truth and that she never wanted to diverge from it, per the outlet's reporting.
There has been conflicting reporting about how close prosecutors actually were to seeking charges. Fox News had reported that grand jury proceedings were ongoing with no final decision made about whether criminal charges would result, while Wired had reported prosecutors were not expected to seek an indictment until after the midterm elections.
Part of a Broader Pattern
Tuesday's rejection was not the Justice Department's first high-profile stumble in a Jan. 6-related case this year. The department also previously failed to indict the so-called Seditious Six members of Congress earlier in the year, according to MS NOW. The New York Times described the failed Hutchinson indictment as another setback in what it characterized as the Trump administration's wide-ranging effort to pursue his political opponents, per the New York Times.
The case sits against the backdrop of the broader legal fallout from Jan. 6. The House impeached Trump in 2021 on allegations he incited the Capitol mob, and the Senate later acquitted him after his impeachment trial, per the Virginian-Pilot. The Justice Department under President Biden later charged Trump with felony offenses over his efforts to overturn his 2020 election loss, but special counsel Jack Smith abandoned that case after Trump's 2024 presidential victory, citing Justice Department policy that sitting presidents cannot face criminal prosecution, the outlet reported.
