U.S. Rep. Liz Cheney says she has no doubts about the truth behind Cassidy Hutchinson’s Jan. 6 committee testimony following reports that unnamed Secret Service agents disputed her story about former President Donald Trump’s behavior that day.
Cheney, a key member of the Jan. 6 congressional committee who has become one of the faces of the hearings, said in an interview with ABC News to be broadcast Thursday morning that she was “absolutely confident in her credibility — I’m confident in her testimony.”
“The committee’s not going to stand by and watch her character be assassinated by anonymous sources and by men who are claiming executive privilege,” Cheney said of the former White House aide.
According to several reports citing anonymous sources, the Secret Service agents who would have been in Trump’s SUV on Jan. 6, 2021 — when Hutchinson testified he “lunged” at the wheel of the car and the clavicle of a Secret Service agent after his request to go to the U.S. Capitol was refused — have said they were prepared to testify her account wasn’t true.
“Look, I think what Cassidy Hutchinson did was an unbelievable example of bravery and of courage and of patriotism in the face of real pressure,” Cheney said in the ABC News interview, a 50-second excerpt of which was published Wednesday night.
The Secret Service told Politico the agency did not hear from the Jan. 6 committee about the agents potentially re-testifying in the 10 days before Tuesday’s surprise hearing.
“[W]e were not asked to reappear before the Committee in response to yesterday’s new information and we plan on formally responding on the record,” Anthony Guglielmi, the service’s chief of communications, told Politico in an email. “We have and will continue to make any member of the Secret Service available.”
Hutchinson doubled down on her testimony in a statement through her attorneys.
“Ms. Hutchinson stands by all of the testimony she provided yesterday, under oath, to the Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the United States Capitol,” the statement read.