Cassidy Hutchinson, the former Trump White House staffer who served as an assistant to Chief of Staff Mark Meadows before testifying against Trump in front of the Jan. 6 Committee, spoke to CNN Wednesday about her former boss being indicted. Meadows is among those indicted Wednesday for his involvement in helping to arrange for fake electors to be seated from the state of Arizona in order to keep the former president in office, the network reports.
Anchor Kaitlan Collins noted that her interview with Hutchinson had already been scheduled before the indictment dropped on Wednesday afternoon.
“I mean, the indictment did just drop, so I haven’t had a lot of time to process it,” Hutchinson said. “I’ve said for a long time, since the day that I decided to come forward and comply fully with the Jan. 6th Committee, that I hoped Mark already had been doing the right thing with the Justice Department.”
However, Hutchinson implied that indications are that Meadows hasn’t been cooperating.
“I think it’s unfortunate that it at least appears that there are still people not complying people with their civic duty that they owe the American people, but I can’t really say I’m overly surprised at this point, either,” Hutchinson said.
When asked why she wasn’t surprised, Hutchinson added, “Looking back at the last few years, there have been a lot of people — not just Mark — people in the former president’s orbit, some who have also been indicted, but people who are also just complicit in their silence around things. And I think, whether you are close to Donald Trump, or you worked for Donald Trump, we all owe the American people the truth about Donald Trump. We owe them the opportunity to know who he actually is.”
“It’s not easy,” she continued. “You know, I was very loyal to Donald Trump when I worked for him, and it took me a long time to make that break. And there are a lot of consequences that you have to brave when you make the break with Trump World. But what I feared more was the deceit that Donald Trump would continue to perpetuate if more people didn’t stick up for the truth.”
Collins asked Hutchinson about her feelings given how closely she worked with Meadows, going everywhere he did, including his office and on Air Force One. Collins noted that this is the second time Meadows has been indicted.
“It’s really sad,” Hutchinson said. “I was really close with Mark. I really believed in Mark as a principal — that’s why I chose to take a job with the chief of staff. So it’s difficult to see him in this position, but I think on the greater scale, too, if you look at how Mr. Trump has conducted himself through his business career and also his political career, I almost relate it to just… bodies around him. He takes out everybody who is loyal to him, because it’s all about his personal gain and what he can gain from those people.”
She said that it is the duty of both citizens and those who work in politics to preserve the United States’ democratic institutions.
“Donald Trump does not show respect for our democratic institutions,” Hutchinson said. “In fact, I would suggest he shows the exact opposite — he shows contempt for our democratic institutions.”
“I think there are a lot of people, like myself, who believe they’re going [to Washington] to do the right thing and to serve the American people,” Hutchinson said, “and they get caught up in something that’s so much more dangerous than they actually anticipated. But I think there are some people that went in with their eyes wide open, and unfortunately, they knew, and they feel that their loyalty is owed to Donald Trump.”
She said she couldn’t comment on whether Meadows was one of those who went into working for Trump with his eyes wide open.
“I cannot crawl into the psyche of Mark Meadows,” Hutchinson said. “It’s difficult to hypothesize or speculate about what Mark truly believed.”
Hutchinson shared that there were some days after the 2020 election where Meadows would acknowledge that Trump had lost in November, while there were other times when it seemed to her like he was beginning to believe in conspiracy theories about the election.
“He was involved in a lot, but he also knows a lot,” Hutchinson said. “He’s a person that has critical information, I believe, in every single investigation. He owes it to himself, he owes it to the American people, and he owes it to the duty that he swore to defend and protect the Constitution, to tell the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, to every investigator.”
The idea of Meadows and Hutchinson moving to work for Trump in Florida was also discussed following the election, Hutchinson said.
Hutchinson declined to comment on whether she had spoken to investigators before Wednesday’s indictment but added that she would fully cooperate with any cooperation asked of her going forward.
She drew attention to the Supreme Court hearing starting Thursday looking at the issue of Trump’s claims of presidential immunity.
“It’s really important to stress that the American people were not given the truth about Donald Trump in 2016 and he won. He almost won in 2020, and he very well could win if the American people are not made aware of who he actually is,” Hutchinson said.
Others who were indicted Wednesday include Rudy Giuliani, Boris Epshteyn, John Eastman, Jenna Ellis and Mike Roman. CNN reports that Trump himself is an unindicted coconspirator. Hutchinson expressed surprise about Trump not being indicted in this case.
You can watch Cassidy Hutchinson’s full interview with CNN’s Kaitlan Collins at the top of this post.
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