Grand Jury Refuses to Indict Cassidy Hutchinson, the Former White House Aide Who Testified Against Trump on Jan. 6

WASHINGTON, Oct. 27 (TodayViralUSA) — A federal grand jury in Washington on Tuesday refused to indict Cassidy Hutchinson, the former White House aide whose televised 2022 testimony about Donald Trump’s conduct on Jan. 6, 2021, made her one of the most prominent witnesses against him, according to people familiar with the matter.

The panel returned what is known as a “no bill,” rejecting the Justice Department’s request for an indictment. A prosecutor informed U.S. Magistrate Judge Zia Faruqui in court that a grand jury had declined to indict, without naming the defendant or the proposed charges. A senior U.S. official confirmed to NBC News that the case was Hutchinson’s, and The Associated Press and Reuters reported the same, citing people familiar with the matter.

The decision is the latest in a string of failed attempts by the Justice Department to charge people the president has cast as political adversaries.

A case built on her Jan. 6 testimony

The investigation centered on whether Hutchinson gave false testimony to the now-disbanded House select committee that examined the attack on the Capitol. Republican lawmakers have long accused her of lying under oath, and Trump has called her a “scam artist” and suggested she be prosecuted. Hutchinson has consistently maintained that she told the truth.

The case was handled by officials in the department’s Civil Rights Division, led by Trump appointee Harmeet Dhillon, NBC News reported. A grand jury heard evidence against Hutchinson in early October.

The no bill does not end the matter for good. Prosecutors remain free to present the case to a grand jury again.

The testimony that made her a target

Hutchinson, then a special assistant to White House chief of staff Mark Meadows, appeared at a hearing in June 2022 that was announced just a day in advance. She described a president who wanted armed supporters to skip security screening at his rally on the morning of Jan. 6 and who, she said, declined to intervene as rioters at the Capitol chanted “Hang Mike Pence.”

Her most explosive account — that Trump lunged for the steering wheel of the presidential vehicle when the Secret Service refused to take him to the Capitol — was relayed secondhand from a White House security official, a point she acknowledged at the time. Secret Service officials disputed it.

In March 2024, House Republicans released a transcript of the committee’s interview with the Secret Service officer who drove the vehicle. The driver said Trump “never grabbed the steering wheel” and that he did not witness the altercation Hutchinson described, though his account backed other parts of her story, including Trump’s push to join the crowd at the Capitol.

A growing pattern of grand jury refusals

Grand juries rarely turn down federal prosecutors, but such rejections have become frequent enough in Washington that the city’s chief federal judge this year began requiring the Justice Department to alert the on-duty magistrate judge whenever a grand jury declines to indict.

Attorneys for Hutchinson and the Justice Department did not immediately respond to requests for comment, according to NBC News.