A federal grand jury in Washington declined Tuesday to indict Cassidy Hutchinson, the former White House aide whose disputed testimony about President Donald Trump became a centerpiece of the House January 6 investigation.
Prosecutors sought charges of lying to Congress stemming from Hutchinson’s 2022 appearance before the now-dissolved, Democratic-led committee. The rejection leaves the Justice Department without an indictment after years of public demands from Trump and Republican lawmakers for her prosecution.
The grand jury returned a “no bill,” rejecting the proposed charges. Hutchinson was not named when the result was announced in court, but a senior U.S. official confirmed to NBC News that the announcement concerned her case. Officials in the department’s Civil Rights Division, headed by Trump appointee Harmeet Dhillon, presented the case. Prosecutors could seek another indictment.
Hutchinson, a senior aide to then-White House chief of staff Mark Meadows, testified that Trump wanted metal detectors removed before his January 6 speech. She quoted him as saying the crowd was “not here to hurt me” and “I don’t f—ing care that they have weapons.”
She also recounted being told that Trump reached for the presidential vehicle’s steering wheel and a bodyguard’s throat after the Secret Service refused to take him to the Capitol. Hutchinson did not witness that alleged confrontation. The driver later disputed the physical altercation while corroborating that Trump wanted to go to the Capitol. Hutchinson has maintained that her testimony was truthful.
That distinction remains central to the controversy. The grand jury’s decision does not settle the conflicting accounts of what happened inside the vehicle or establish that every detail of Hutchinson’s testimony was accurate. It does mean prosecutors failed to persuade the panel to approve the criminal charges they presented.
Trump has called Hutchinson a “scam artist” who lied under oath. In a 2022 Truth Social post, he asked, “What is the Justice Department going to do about this?” In March, he shared a Breitbart article reporting that House Republicans had referred her to the department for possible charges.
