If you were wondering why the January 6 House Select Committee has been so very hush-hush about its last-minute hearing later this afternoon, we now know that it has something to do with “massive security threats” related to Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA), according to Jacqueline Alemany of the Washington Post.
Alemany was a guest on MSNBC this morning and revealed what she had learned from sources on Capitol Hill regarding Cassidy Hutchinson, a former aide to White House chief of staff Mark Meadows, who will testify today and why there’s so much cloak and dagger from the Jan. 6 panel:
“We have heard actually that some of the, as you just read, that the reason why her testimony has been so closely guarded is because of massive security threats in the last hearing. She did say, reveal, that [Rep.] Marjorie Taylor Greene, she heard Marjorie Taylor Greene asked for a pardon, and you can only imagine what that does in terms of elevating her name and potentially causing far-right extremists to levy some of these credible threats that have come her way.”
Greene wasn’t the only Republican who was seeking a pardon in the final days of the Trump administration. The others we know about thanks to Hutchinson are Reps. Andy Biggs (R-AZ), Mo Brooks (R-AL), Matt Gaetz (R-FL), Louie Gohmert (R-TX), and Scott Perry (R-PA).
Alemany also compared Hutchinson’s Tuesday testimony to a well-known figure from the Watergate scandal which led to the resignation of Richard Nixon:
“We have had people previously tell us that if there is anyone going to be the John Dean of this investigation, Cassidy Hutchinson is the person who is the most likely to be that person in terms of her access to the top figures in Trump’s orbit and her proximity to the former president and what she was able to overhear, the people in and out of the Oval Office on Jan. 6. But it is important to note we’re not sure there’s another witness corroborating her testimony today. There was clearly a sensitivity and urgency to her testifying today, and you’ve got to think that it’s in part due to the security concerns, but also because they’re worried she might potentially back out. This is not a small thing for this individual to come forward, put her career on the line.”
The Post reporter concluded by noting:
“Obviously she’s being compelled, there are subpoenas at play. Several individuals like Bill Stepien who didn’t appear were subpoenaed to appear, but this is a big thing for her. She’s in her 20s, she’s a young person with, you know, little institutional support in terms of the other people she used to work with cooperating with this investigation.”
