Case led by Civil Rights Division, not DC US Attorney Pirro

The Justice Department has presented evidence to a federal grand jury in a case against Cassidy Hutchinson, the former White House aide whose 2022 congressional testimony described President Donald Trump’s conduct during the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol attack, two people familiar with the matter told The Washington Post and CBS News.

The grand jury’s convening comes after years of public calls from President Trump for Hutchinson’s prosecution and after two Republican allies in Congress — Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, and Rep. Barry Loudermilk, R-Ga. — referred her to the Justice Department for alleged false testimony, according to UPI.

Punchbowl News was first to report that the grand jury had been convened. The Justice Department is accusing Hutchinson of lying to Congress when she gave her testimony, according to the two sources.

The specific potential charges against Hutchinson were not immediately clear. One of the people familiar with the matter told The Post that prosecutors are looking to charge her with a civil rights violation.

The case is being prosecuted in the District of Columbia, but D.C. U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro is not involved. The matter is being led by Harmeet K. Dhillon, the assistant attorney general for Civil Rights, according to UPI.

Hutchinson served as an aide to then-White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows. In 2022, when she was 25, she testified before the House committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack about Trump’s actions that day.

She told the committee that Trump encouraged his supporters to march to the Capitol even though he knew many of them were armed.

She also testified that White House aide Anthony Ornato told her that Trump, riding in a presidential SUV, lunged at a Secret Service agent after being told he could not go with the group as they marched to the Capitol.

“Tony described him as being irate,” Hutchinson said. “The president said something to the effect of, ‘I’m the [expletive] president, take me up to the Capitol now.’”

She said Trump “reached up toward the front of the vehicle to grab at the steering wheel.” He then, she testified, “used his free hand to lunge toward Bobby Engel,” the head of his security detail.

The Secret Service agent driving the vehicle contradicted Hutchinson’s account, saying Trump never lunged toward him.