Cassidy Hutchinson, the former aide in the Trump White House who prominently testified to the House committee investigating the Capitol riot at a hastily scheduled public hearing, is now cooperating with the election meddling investigation led by Georgia’s Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis.
Willis “has secured cooperation” from Hutchinson, CNN says. To the January 6 panel, she spoke about issues including worries before January 6 regarding the possibility of criminal exposure should plans for Trump to visit the Capitol materialize. She also discussed an incident of which she was directly informed in which Trump allegedly got into a brief physical altercation with a member of his personal security team as he tried to pressure his way to the Capitol as the security situation deteriorated. It’s unclear what Trump might have done at the Capitol should he have made it. In the White House, Hutchinson worked with then-chief of staff Mark Meadows, who was personally involved with election meddling attempts that directly targeted Georgia, including an infamous phone conversation in which Trump pressured the top elections official in the state for action on the 2020 presidential election outcome. Meadows was on the call.
He also appeared in the state at the site of a post-election audit of mail-in ballot signatures in Cobb County. As reported on this site, Meadows and the Trump team provided no substantial advance notice to local authorities that the then-White House official would visit. Once in Cobb County, Meadows wanted to personally view the audit process, which local authorities declined to permit. The audit — which came up during Trump’s sprawling phone conversation with Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger the following month — wasn’t open to the public. As for the call with Raffensperger, Meadows was apparently involved with setting it up, per information Willis highlighted in a court filing. Willis is also pursuing testimony from Meadows, although she has yet to successfully secure it. She will be engaging in a temporary halt to public investigative work by the special grand jury working on her investigation in the lead-up to Election Day later this year, although a hearing on the prospect of getting testimony from Meadows is apparently slated for late October.
After the elections, things could quickly move forward. “CNN previously reported that Willis is aiming to swiftly wrap up her probe after the midterms and could begin issuing indictments as soon as December,” the outlet noted this week. Rudy Giuliani and individuals who signed on as Trump electors from Georgia despite Biden’s win there have already been informed of the possibility they could face criminal charges, and targets could extend beyond that list. Some of Giuliani’s vulnerability comes from conspiracy theories about the election he deceptively pushed to state legislators amid his nationwide PR campaign on behalf of election lies after the last presidential race concluded. Already, Willis has privately heard from state legislators who were subjected to Rudy’s nonsense during public hearings.
