Agency also charged Comey, James, Southern Poverty Law Center, and Don Lemon

Justice Department prosecutors are seeking criminal charges against Cassidy Hutchinson, a former top aide to White House chief of staff Mark Meadows, over testimony she gave to the panel investigating the January 6, 2021 Capitol attack, according to a person familiar with the matter. The potential charges involve lying to Congress, the person said. Punchbowl News first reported the effort on Thursday.

Hutchinson served as a top aide to Meadows in the Trump White House. She testified before the House select committee investigating the attack that the deputy chief of staff for operations told her that Trump did not want to return to the White House on January 6, 2021, and at one point grabbed the wheel of his SUV in an attempt to join supporters at the Capitol. Republicans have long disputed this account.

A Justice Department spokesperson, asked about the Hutchinson matter, said in a statement: “The department does not confirm or deny the existence of investigations, or the lack thereof.”

In April, The New York Times reported that prosecutors in the Justice Department’s civil rights division had been tapped to investigate Hutchinson, a move that was considered highly unusual because such matters would typically be handled by the U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia. Hutchinson has also said in filings in an unrelated case that she was under investigation by the Justice Department.

The Hutchinson case is one of several recent prosecutions the Justice Department has pursued against public figures. Last year, the department indicted former FBI Director James Comey on charges of lying to Congress and New York Attorney General Letitia James on mortgage fraud. Both indictments were dismissed after a judge ruled that the prosecutor overseeing them had been unlawfully appointed.

The department has since filed a new indictment against Comey, this one alleging he posted a picture of seashells arranged in a formation that read “8647.” The Justice Department has also filed charges against the Southern Poverty Law Center, a nonprofit organization, and against journalist Don Lemon.