Justice Department probe of Cassidy Hutchinson follows congressional referral

Two-week sequence included Omar search and federal charges

WASHINGTON — The Justice Department began investigating former White House aide Cassidy Hutchinson in April after receiving a referral from a member of Congress accusing her of lying during her June 2022 testimony before the House select committee investigating the Capitol attack. During the two weeks before The Wall Street Journal’s report, federal agents searched Rep. Ilhan Omar’s home in an immigration probe; federal agents charged a pair of former FBI intelligence officials with lying to Congress about their roles in years-old investigations of President Joe Biden’s son, Hunter Biden; and federal agents charged former FBI director James Comey with leaking classified information 10 years ago. The report also said President Trump and some of his allies had long sought a Hutchinson prosecution and that Justice Department officials faced pressure from Trump ahead of Election Day to show progress.

Federal agents searched the home of Rep. Ilhan Omar (D., Minn.), whom the report described as a top Trump critic, as part of an immigration probe. Federal agents charged a pair of former FBI intelligence officials with lying to Congress about their roles in years-old investigations of President Joe Biden’s son, Hunter Biden. The report placed both developments in the two weeks before publication.

Federal agents also charged former FBI director James Comey with leaking classified information 10 years ago, the report said. Prosecutors relied on an unusual procedural move to extend the statute of limitations so they could seek an indictment.

The report said President Trump and some of his allies had long wanted prosecutors to pursue a case against Hutchinson. It also said Justice Department officials were under pressure from Trump ahead of Election Day to show progress on prosecutions of people he believed had wronged him.

Hutchinson was a onetime top aide to former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows. In June 2022, she testified that Trump had been told that some of his supporters were heavily armed when he urged them to march to the Capitol.

She also testified that Trump wanted to be driven to the Capitol and wrestled for the steering wheel with the Secret Service after his order was refused. At the end of a midday rally on the Ellipse on Jan. 6, 2021, Trump told supporters he would join them in a march toward Congress as lawmakers were certifying Biden’s 2020 presidential victory. The report said Trump did not end up going down Pennsylvania Avenue and that some Trump supporters later surged through police lines and stormed the building.

Hutchinson testified about the extent to which Trump allegedly wanted to reach the Capitol. A member of Congress accused Hutchinson of lying during her June 2022 testimony before the House select committee. The Justice Department received that referral before the investigation began in April.

A federal grand jury declined to indict Hutchinson on Tuesday, according to people familiar with the matter. The Wall Street Journal characterized the rejection as a setback for Justice Department efforts to prosecute people Trump believed had wronged him. The decision came more than four years after her June 2022 congressional testimony about events surrounding the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol. It came in the same two-week period as the Omar search and federal charges described above.