Near the conclusion of last week’s January 6 committee hearing, Rep. Elaine Luria (D-VA) said something that has many in Washington wondering if we could be on the verge of something truly momentous when the hearings restart in September.
Lisa Rubin, an off-air legal analyst for “The Rachel Maddow Show,” certainly had her interested piqued, as she explains in an article she wrote and posted online:
Specifically, at the so-called season finale of the committee’s hearings last week, Rep. Elaine Luria, D-Va., highlighted that “within 15 minutes of leaving the stage” at the Ellipse rally, Trump was informed about the attack on the Capitol by a person she described only as “a White House employee” who encountered Trump “as soon as he returned to the Oval [Office].” From there, Luria said, Trump went to the private dining room off the Oval Office at 1:25 p.m.
Later in the hearing, her colleague Rep. Adam Kinzinger, R-Ill., returned to that unnamed White House employee, noting that Trump left the dining room on Jan. 6 for the White House residence at 6:27 p.m. Kinzinger added:
As he was gathering his things in the dining room to leave, President Trump reflected on the day’s events with a White House employee. This was the same employee who had met President Trump in the Oval Office after he returned from the Ellipse. President Trump said nothing to the employee about the attack. He said only quote, “Mike Pence let me down.”
Put another way, the person who informed Trump about the eruption of violence on Jan. 6 also never heard him express any regret about what happened other than his regret that then-Vice President Mike Pence did not overturn the election. That he saw Trump on his way in and out of the Oval Office, roughly five hours apart, also suggests he witnessed a host of other conversations relevant to the intent and actions of Trump and others. And given Luria and Kinzinger’s descriptions of those conversations, it seems likely that the unnamed “White House employee” has spoken to the committee.
A valet stationed at the Oval Office (and there is always one around to basically retrieve things for the president, including coffee, food, or whatever else the president requests) would have intimate knowledge of who Trump spoke with on the day of the Capitol insurrection, what he said to that person on the phone, and anyone he might have met with while other staff were attending to other duties.
That valet, in other words, would potentially have incredibly damaging information that could be shared with the committee and Justice Department now that those entities are “cooperating” and sharing information that can be presented to the grand jury impaneled by the DOJ for the Capitol riot investigation.
Imagine it: A valet, one of the most humble members of the White House staff, being the key witness who can send Donald Trump (and others) to prison for being part of an attempted coup.
Sometimes the smallest details lead to the biggest results.
