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Former Mark Meadows aide Cassidy Hutchinson has claimed that the former White House chief of staff allegedly burned several documents nearly a dozen times between December 2020 and mid-January 2021.
The revelations came to light as the House Select committee, investigating the January 6, 2021, Capitol attack released fresh transcripts from Hutchinson’s testimony in May. In her testimony, Hutchinson said that Meadows burned the documents at least once or twice a week.
She also claimed that the general administration staff were allegedly asked to light the fireplace in the morning and keep additional logs next to the area as well as in Meadows’ closet.
“So throughout the day, he would put more logs on the fireplace to keep it burning throughout the day. And I recall roughly a dozen times where he would take the – I don’t know the formal name for what it’s called that covers the fireplace – but take that off and then throw a few more pieces of paper in with it when he put more logs on the fireplace.”
While the transcript mentioned that Cassidy Hutchinson recalled an account when she was present in Meadows’ office while he burnt the documents, she said that she did not know the contents of the documents, whether they were original copies or required to be preserved by law:
“The Presidential Records Act only asks that you keep the original copy of a document. So, yes. However, I don’t know if they were the first or original copies of anything.”
She further added:
“It’s entirely possible that he had put things in his fireplace that he also would have put into a burn bag that there were duplicates of or that there was an electronic copy of.”
Hutchinson also noted that on at least two occasions, Meadows burned documents after his meeting with Pennsylvania House Representative Scott Perry.
Back in May, the House Select committee alleged that Perry was “directly involved” in the efforts to instate Jeffrey Clark as acting Attorney General in an attempt to use the Justice Department to overturn the 2020 U.S. presidential election.
As Cassidy Hutchinson’s transcripts went viral online, several social media users urged officials to provide proper “protection” to the former aide:
The latest revelations come after several explosive media reports suggested that Trump’s former ethics attorney, Stefan Passantino, advised Cassidy Hutchinson to give misleading testimony to the House Select committee.
According to Vanity Fair, the lawyer is reportedly taking a leave of absence from his firm after the revelation. His name was also allegedly removed from the official site of Michael Best & Friedrich’s firm.
Cassidy Hutchinson transcripts reveal details of alleged Mark Meadows meetings
The newly released Cassidy Hutchinson transcripts also revealed that she testified about Scott Perry and Mark Meadows allegedly discussing “election issues” during their meeting:
“Mr. Perry started coming to meet with Mr. Meadows about what he believed could happen on January 6th, and they were preparing various PowerPoints and he would bring physical material.”
The former aide also hinted that Mark Meadows had tried to keep some meetings “off official records.” She testified that either at the end of November or early December 2020, Meadows allegedly told Oval Office staff members to keep some meetings “close hold.”
Hutchinson quoted Meadows, saying:
“We will talk about what that means, but for now we will keep things real tight and private so things don’t start to leak out.”
She even alleged that there “were certain things that had potentially been left off” the Oval Office diary. Hutchinson, however, said she did not know the details of the specific documents.
Cassidy Hutchinson also told the January 6 committee that she often helped in coordinating the delivery of certain documents from the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence (HPSCI) to the White House.
One of the transcripts revealed that the former aide liaised with former California Rep. Devin Nunes and that the documents were delivered in the last week of December 2020 in a “dolly of boxes”:
“On December 31st — or December 30th — we got all the documents. They came up on a dolly in a few boxes and I had to sign for them. And then he called White House counsel down.”
Hutchinson also claimed that HPSCI staffers met with Meadows, Nunes and former Trump lawyer Pat Cipollone and that a member of the Situation Room delivered the boxes. However, she said that she did not personally review the content of the documents:
“I don't know if it was the Situation Room that brought them or if it was somebody, a staffer, I don't know, because they came from the Hill, I don't know how, like what the protocol is for releasing them.”
She continued:
“I don't know if they have to go through the FBI or the CIA, or if it was something they could have sent to the Situation Room to print and bind there.”
In her testimony, Hutchinson also claimed that HPSCI staffers allegedly saw the documents “at some point” and were aware of its contents:
“HPSCI had seen these documents at some point and had these documents at some point and were aware of the contents of these documents," she said. "I am not sure if it's something that the Republican HPSCI staffers had deeply looked into or if it was more the intention to bring them to the White House to look into them.”
Cassidy Hutchinson also clarified that she was never part of the meetings that took place between White House officials and their Republican allies despite having a security clearance.
Twitter reacts to Cassidy Hutchinson’s transcripts and Mark Meadows revelations
Former White House aide Cassidy Hutchinson has continued to make news ever since the House Select committee named her as a witness at the January 6 Capitol Attack hearing earlier this year.
Hutchison also previously provided her deposition to the committee in videotaped interviews surrounding key information about the internal attempts to overturn the 2020 election as well as certain details on Mark Meadows, Scott Perry, former Trump attorney Rudy Giuliani and others.
While excerpts from the closed-door testimony were previously reported by Politico and The New York Times, the House Select Committee recently released actual transcripts of Hutchinson’s interview.
As the transcripts went viral online, several social media users took to Twitter to react to Cassidy Hutchison’s testimony:
As reactions continue to pour in online, it remains to be seen if Mark Meadows or other officials will respond to the allegations mentioned in Cassidy Hutchinson’s testimony.
