A Republican-led House committee reviewing the work of the House select committee that investigated the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol has released a report Republicans say disputes a piece of testimony delivered by one of the panel’s star witnesses, Cassidy Hutchinson, during her 2022 testimony.
In the report, first obtained by ABC News, the House Administration Subcommittee on Oversight says a handwriting analyst, who the committee retained, determined that a note Hutchinson testified she had written for then-President Donald Trump to read during the attack on the Capitol was actually written by then-White House lawyer Eric Herschmann.
During Hutchinson’s testimony in June 2022, Rep. Liz Cheney displayed a handwritten note that Hutchinson testified she wrote after her boss, Trump Chief of Staff Mark Meadows, handed her a note card and pen to take his dictation. The note, containing a potential statement for Trump to release, read, “Anyone who entered the Capitol illegally without proper authority should leave immediately” — with the word “illegally” crossed out.
Following Hutchinson’s testimony, ABC News reported that Herschmann had come forward to claim that the note was written by him during a meeting at the White House, and not by Hutchinson.
As part of their ongoing investigation into the Jan. 6 select committee, the House Administration Subcommittee on Oversight “obtained several samples of Mr. Herschmann’s handwriting,” which the committee turned over to an independent handwriting expert, who determined the samples matched the former White House lawyer’s handwriting.
“Based on the documents submitted, the evidence supports my opinion that the handwriting that appears on the Questioned Document was written in the same hand as the exemplars,” the report reads, referring to samples of Herschmann’s handwriting, according to a copy of the report obtained by ABC News.
A representative for Hutchinson declined to comment to ABC News.
Cassidy Hutchinson, former aide to Trump White House chief of staff Mark Meadows, testifies as the House select committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol holds a hearing at the Capitol in Washington, June 28, 2022.
Jacquelyn Martin/AP, FILE
As part of the production of documents, Hutchinson handed over a birthday card as a handwriting sample to the subcommittee.
In a statement, subcommittee Chairman Barry Loudermilk said the findings contradict Hutchinson’s testimony.
“This new evidence provided by an independent, Certified Questioned Document Examiner, not only contradicts Ms. Hutchinson’s numerous claims that she penned the note, but also exposes the Select Committee’s willingness to accept all her testimonies without corroboration or further investigation,” Loudermilk said.
Despite Republicans’ allegations regarding who wrote the note, as ABC News previously reported, several White House aides did urge then-President Trump to take action as his supporters were attacking the Capitol. Trump ultimately did not send his first tweet asking his supporters to leave the Capitol until just over three hours after the initial breach.
In March, the House Administration Subcommittee on Oversight released an “Initial Findings Report” that Republicans claimed showed that four other White House employees did not corroborate Hutchinson’s account of former Trump’s actions that day.
“The testimony of these four White House employees directly contradicts claims made by Cassidy Hutchinson and by the Select Committee in the Final Report. None of the White House employees corroborated Hutchinson’s sensational story about President Trump lunging for the steering wheel of the Beast,” the “Initial Findsings Report” says. “However, some witnesses did describe the President’s mood after the speech at the Ellipse.”
In a letter to Laudermilk, Hutchinson’s attorney, William H. Jordan, wrote, “Let me be clear: since Ms. Hutchinson changed counsel, she has and will continue to tell the truth. While other individuals — often men who occupied more senior roles — would not speak with the Select Committee, Ms. Hutchinson and many other witnesses courageously stepped forward. Yet she now finds herself being questioned by you and your Subcommittee regarding her testimony and on matters that may also be the subject of ongoing criminal proceedings against Mr. Trump.”
“Ms. Hutchinson will not succumb to a pressure campaign from those who seek to silence her and influence her testimony, even when done in the name of ‘oversight,'” Hutchinson’s attorney wrote.
Hutchinson’s testimony in front of the Jan. 6 committee sent shockwaves through the political world in 2022. The former top adviser to then-President Trump’s chief of staff divulged numerous details about what she said went on behind the scenes leading up to, during, and after the Capitol attack.
Following nine public hearings and interviews with hundreds of witnesses, the House Jan. 6 committee released a final report in December 2022 that concluded that Trump had led what it called a “multi-part conspiracy to overturn the lawful results of the 2020 Presidential election.”
Hutchinson, who has said she remained a Republican, has since endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris for president.
“Donald Trump and JD Vance cannot be trusted with the Constitution. They cannot be trusted to uphold our rule of law and they can’t be trusted to enact responsible policy,” Hutchinson said when she announced her endorsement. “That in and of itself is disqualifying.”
