Former President Donald Trump did not try to grab the steering wheel of a presidential limousine on January 6, contrary to claims made by a prominent witness for the January 6 Committee, a conclusion supported by testimonies collected by the Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) Office of the Inspector General (OIG).
Cassidy Hutchinson, a former aide to ex-White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows, testified to the January 6 Committee in 2022 that she had heard from presidential security official Tony Ornato that Trump lunged for the wheel of “the Beast” after learning he was being taken back to the White House instead of the Capitol. However, witnesses who were inside the vehicle and interviewed for a DHS Office of Inspector General (OIG) report on the Secret Service’s response to January 6 have stated that Trump did not make any such attempt.
“We also interviewed [redacted] Secret Service agents in the limousine with the President. The limousine driver said that the President was angry when his request to go to the Capitol was denied, whereas the President’s detail lead, who was seated in front of the President, said he did not recall if the President was angry,” reads a footnote in the report. “We asked [redacted] agents whether the President reached for the steering wheel or lunged toward the detail lead when his request to go to the Capitol was denied, and [redacted] witnesses said those actions did not occur.”
The DHS OIG report notes that investigators did not interview Hutchinson for the report because her testimony on what occurred inside “the Beast” was already part of the public record. Additionally, the report said that Ornato wrote to the OIG, saying that “I do not recall being made aware of any details about the President’s return trip to the White House and, as such, I do not recall speaking with anyone about it.”
The account provided by the witnesses inside the vehicle differs significantly from Cassidy Hutchinson’s testimony to the January 6 Committee in June 2022. Hutchinson had described an incident where the head of Trump’s Secret Service protective detail had to restrain the president as he allegedly reached for the steering wheel of the presidential limo.
Ornato “described [Trump] as being irate. The president said something to the effect of, ‘I am the f-ing president. Take me up to the Capitol now,’” Hutchinson claimed under oath, adding that Engel was silent when Ornato told her the story. Major news outlets, such as Reuters, CBS News, and NBC News, amplified Hutchinson’s claims about what happened in the Beast on Jan. 6 when she testified to Congress about it in June 2022.