A federal grand jury in Washington, D.C., on Tuesday rejected a request by the Department of Justice to indict former White House aide Cassidy Hutchinson over her 2022 congressional testimony about President Donald Trump’s conduct during the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol.
Prosecutors in the DOJ’s Civil Rights Division sought to charge Hutchinson with a crime based on claims she made false statements, according to MS NOW, citing two people with knowledge of the case. Hutchinson had told lawmakers a second-hand account about Trump angrily lunging at a security aide after being told he could not go to the Capitol that day.
Senior DOJ lawyer Neville Hedley, without naming Hutchinson in open court, told Magistrate Judge Zia Faruqui that the grand jury had rejected a requested indictment, The Washington Post reported.
Why This Is Rare
It is extremely rare for a grand jury to refuse to indict when prosecutors present evidence of alleged crimes. Grand juries typically approve indictments overwhelmingly, and the process is often described as a formality because prosecutors control what evidence is presented.
But since Trump returned to the White House in January 2025, federal prosecutors in Washington have repeatedly failed to obtain grand jury indictments they sought. In recent weeks, prosecutors filed separate criminal cases against former FBI Director James Comey and two former FBI officials using charging documents other than grand jury indictments.
Hutchinson’s Testimony
Hutchinson testified in June 2022 to the House Select Committee that investigated the Jan. 6 Capitol riot. She said that after Trump spoke at a rally outside the White House, then-White House official Tony Ornato asked her, “Did you effing hear what happened in The Beast?”
She testified that Ornato told her that when Trump got in the car, he was under the impression from his then-Chief of Staff Mark Meadows that they were going to the Capitol. When Robert Engel, the head of Trump’s security detail, said the president could not go there because the area was not secure, Trump “had a very strong, a very angry response to that,” Hutchinson testified that Ornato said.
“Tony described him as being irate,” Hutchinson said, noting that Trump had said something like: “I’m the effing president, take me up to the Capitol now.”
When Engel refused again to drive him to the Capitol, Trump “reached up towards the front of the vehicle to grab at the steering wheel. Mr. Engel grabbed his arm, said, ‘Sir, you need to take your hand off the steering wheel. We’re going back to the West Wing,'” Hutchinson testified. Trump “then used his free hand to lunge toward Bobby Engel,” Hutchinson said she was told by Ornato.
The Bottom Line
A federal grand jury has rejected the Justice Department’s request to indict former White House aide Cassidy Hutchinson over her Jan. 6 testimony. The decision is a rare setback for prosecutors, who have repeatedly failed to secure grand jury indictments since Trump returned to office. Hutchinson’s testimony included a second-hand account of Trump lunging at a security aide after being told he could not go to the Capitol.
My Opinion
A grand jury just told the Justice Department no. That is not supposed to happen. Grand juries are famously compliant. Prosecutors present their evidence, the jurors nod, and the indictment comes back. It is so routine that lawyers call it “the prosecutor’s rubber stamp.” But this time, the jury looked at what the DOJ was trying to do to Cassidy Hutchinson and said: not enough.
That should alarm the administration because it. means the evidence was weak and the case was political. And it means that even in a system where prosecutors usually get what they want, the DOJ could not convince a group of ordinary citizens that Hutchinson had committed a crime.
Hutchinson had testified under oath about what she was told, but she was not the original source of the story — Tony Ornato was. If the DOJ believed her account was false, it should have gone after Ornato. Instead, it went after the young aide who was willing to speak.
