A former senior staffer to Mark R. Meadows, both in his congressional office and at the White House, when Meadows was President Donald J. Trump’s chief of staff X-posted Dec. 17 a shocking vista into the machinations of the House Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the United States Capitol—and one of their star witnesses: Cassidy Hutchinson.
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“I haven’t spoken much about the below incident publicly due to ongoing investigations — but given the good work of today’s House Admin report on the J6 Committee and its revelations on possible ‘witness tampering,’” wrote Ben Williamson, who served Meadows as chief of staff and communications director.
I haven’t spoken much about the below incident publicly due to ongoing investigations — but given the good work of today’s House Admin report on the J6 Committee and its revelations on possible “witness tampering,” I’d like to share a relevant episode involving another…
— Ben Williamson (@_WilliamsonBen) December 18, 2024
“This is just one story in a long list, and relatively, I ended up one of the lucky ones, but I’m glad to see the report today take the J6 Committee and their ‘star witness’ to task,” he said.
“It was all based on fabrications, yet the J6 Committee never even bothered to get the other side,” he said. “It’s one of many reasons why none of their claims about President Trump, or frankly anyone else, should ever be believed.”
Hutchinson was flipped
Hutchinson worked with Williamson at both Capitol Hill and the White House, and her transition from friendly witness to hostile witness was facilitated by former Republican Wyoming congresswoman Elizabeth L. “Liz” Cheney, the vice chairwoman of the J6 Committee, along with former Trump and Meadows aide Alyssa Farah Griffin and former Virginia Republican congresswoman Barbara Comstock.
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Farah Griffin, who described Hutchinson as needing money, invited the unemployed former Trump staffer to her home to talk it out before making the connection to Cheney.
The Patrick Henry College graduate shared his recollections the same day the Committee on House Administration’s Subcommittee on Oversight released an interim report by its chairman, Rep. Barry Loudermilk (R.-Ga.), into the politicization of the J6 Committee.
The Democrats’ former J6 Select Committee conducted their ‘investigation’ outside the bounds of legitimacy, suppressed evidence, and deleted key information.
Today’s report exposes them for misleading Congress and the American people.https://t.co/6Ohl9az9jo
— Rep. Barry Loudermilk (@RepLoudermilk) December 17, 2024
Central to the interim report is Loudermilk’s recommendation that the Justice Department prosecute Cheney for colluding with Hutchinson without Hutchinson’s attorney’s knowledge and Cheney’s potential criminal witness tampering.
Loudermilk further accused Cheney and Hutchinson of baselessly working to disbar Hutchinson’s original attorney after Cheney’s backdoor approach.
The Georgia congressman also said Hutchinson, encouraged by Cheney, testified to the J6 Committee outrageous claims for which she and no one else had evidence to support.
Among Hutchinson’s claims was that Trump physically attacked his Secret Service detail—including the driver—in an effort to redirect his vehicle towards Capitol Hill, which Loudermilk’s report said was false.
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Hutchinson did not draft a handwritten note with the text of a Trump tweet on Jan. 6, 2021, nor did Trump have intelligence indicating that there would be violence the morning of Jan. 6—two more of Hutchinson’s stories, the chairman’s report said.
READ MORE: Bannon Blasts ‘Joan of Arc’ Cassidy Hutchinson Changing J6 Testimony: ‘She Lied!’
Williamson: Hutchinson called me about her testimony
“Almost three years ago, in early 2022, I got a phone call from Cassidy telling me her closed-door deposition with the J6 Committee, under subpoena, was approaching,” Williamson said.
“Cassidy claimed to be worried that our old Trump WH colleagues, including our boss Mark Meadows, might think she was ‘disloyal’ for following a subpoena and showing up to the deposition,” he said.
“I cut her off mid-convo and responded: ‘No one will think you’re disloyal just for following a subpoena, and Mark would never, ever ask you to do anything other than the right thing and tell the truth. He wouldn’t think you’re disloyal,’” he said.
Hutchinson’s former boss said she agreed it would not be a problem, and the call ended without any alarm bells going off.
The North Carolina native said months went by. Then he was surprised to see that the J6 Committee was promoting Hutchinson as one of their star witnesses, “making completely outlandish claims untethered from reality — many of which were rightly disputed or shot down within minutes.”
One of the unique features of the J6 Committee’s public hearing was their hyper-theatrical production, led by James Goldston. Goldston worked for ABC News for 17 years, including the last seven years as the network’s news president.
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Williamson said when he was watching Hutchinson’s testimony, he saw Cheney post on the giant screen that dominated the hearing room what was described as an anonymous message to Hutchinson before the closed-door testimony she called her former boss about.
“Cheney claimed it was evidence of ‘witness intimidation,’” he said.
“The anonymous message Cheney displayed read, partly: ‘He (Meadows) told me you have your deposition tomorrow. He knows you’re loyal, and you’re going to do the right thing when you go in for your deposition,’” he said. “Via public news reports, I later learned this was in reference to me.”
Williamson: Cheney, Hutchinson set me up with the FBI
Williamson, now the chief of staff for Rep. Michael J. Cloud, said Cheney’s presentation of the phone conversation between him and Hutchinson was a fantasy.
“It was a completely twisted, utterly nonsense re-telling of the phone convo where Cassidy had fretted to me about ‘loyalty,’” he said. “She (and the Committee) embellished parts of the exchange, made up others, and spun it into a lie that appeared like witness intimidation.”
Then, it got worse, he said.
“The J6 Committee presented this account as factual — when it wasn’t — and then leaked my name to reporters to create the narrative that I was guilty,” he said.
“In the weeks and months that followed, I faced accusations of criminal exposure over it – all over nonsense. Members like Dan Goldman publicly accused me of ‘witness tampering,’” he said.
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Next, the Federal Bureau of Investigation got involved, he said.
“The FBI called me in for hours of questioning,” he said. “Meanwhile, the J6 Committee never once followed up with me or my attorneys to ask me about this interaction before uncritically airing the dishonest version.”
Williamson said many people were put through worse than he went through, but he still remembers it as a very difficult time—especially because it was challenging to find legal representation.
“They spread an untold amount of falsehoods about my friends, colleagues, and bosses and forced many good people to defend themselves in ways they should’ve never had to,” he said.
“I will never forget it.”
