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| Photo Credit: AP. |
A member of the House Select Committee investigating the January 6 2021 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol, Rep. Zoe Lofgren (D-Calif.) has said she is surprised by federal prosecutors’ reaction to Cassidy Hutchinson’s testimony before the panel, The Hill reports.
Hutchinson,
an aide to former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows had said on Tuesday
during her testimony before the January 6 panel that both Meadows and Rudy
Giuliani sought pardons from former President Trump, adding that Trump tried to
grab the steering wheel of the car he was in on January 6 in an unsuccessful attempt
to get to the Capitol after he was informed he could not be taken there and
that Meadows told her on January 2 that things could “get, real, real bad” on
the day the riot ultimately occurred, according to The Hill.
The Hill
reported that during an appearance on NBC’s “Meet the Press” that aired Sunday,
host Chuck Todd asked Lofgren to react to a story published last week in the
New York Times that reported that federal prosecutors working on the Justice
Department’s January 6 investigation felt blindsided after watching Hutchinson’s
testimony and were as surprised by her remarks as those watching it.
Justice
Department Prosecutors have long complained of the refusal of the House Select
Committee investigating the January 6 insurrection to provide transcripts of
interviews it had conducted to enable it effectively prosecute cases.
Hutchinson spoke to panel investigators behind closed doors about four times
before her public hearing on Tuesday.
“You know, I
was surprised that the prosecutors were surprised. What are they doing over
there? They have a much greater opportunity to enforce their subpoenas than our
legislative committee does,” Lofgren told Todd.
“We’re not
an arm of the Department of Justice. We’re a legislative committee. They have
subpoena power. They could subpoena Ms. Hutchinson. I’m surprised they had not
done so. We interviewed her four times. I think that’s publicly known at this
point. And the fourth interview was very compelling,” she added, responding to
a question if she thought it was a fair characterization that the House panel
had blindsided the Justice Department.