The Secret Service driver who was behind the wheel of President Donald Trump’s SUV on Jan. 6, 2021 has reportedly been interviewed by the House select committee investigating last year’s Capitol riot.
The panel interviewed the driver, whose name hasn’t been disclosed publicly, on Monday as their months-long investigation nears a conclusion, multiple sources told CNN.
Trump’s driver, who was a key witness to the 45th president’s behavior that day, has not previously spoken to the panel, the sources added.
Former White House staffer Cassidy Hutchinson had testified to the panel in June that an irate Trump had tried to grab the steering wheel of the presidential SUV from the driver in a desperate effort to join his supporters marching towards the Capitol.
Hutchinson, who worked for then-White House chief of staff Mark Meadows, testified that she was told Trump had shouted: “I’m the f—ing president! Take me up to the Capitol now!”
Secret Service agent Bobby Engel, who was in the lead car, had stopped Trump from steering the vehicle toward the Capitol soon after giving a rallying speech to his supporters, Hutchinson told the panel.
The aide added that White House deputy chief of staff for operations Tony Ornato had relayed details of the motorcade clash to her immediately after returning to the West Wing.
Trump was quick to dismiss Hutchinson’s testimony as a “fake story” and has repeatedly denied manhandling any Secret Service agent during the ordeal.
Engel and Ornato had met with House investigators prior to Hutchinson’s testimony — and the panel has already signaled they want to hear from them again.
The driver is among the growing number of Secret Service agents and officials interviewed in recent days by the select committee — including former Secret Service agent John Gutsmiedl and agency spokesman Anthony Guglielmi.
It comes after Trump was subpoenaed by the House select committee last month, claiming that he “personally orchestrated and oversaw a multi-part effort to overturn the 2020 presidential election.”
“[Trump] summon[ed] tens of thousands of supporters to Washington and, knowing they were angry and some were armed, sen[t] them to the Capitol,” the committee alleged.
The subpoena ordered Trump to produce all “relevant documentary material” by Nov. 4 and to participate in “one or more days of deposition testimony” starting on Nov. 14.
“We have received correspondence from the former President and his counsel in connection with the Select Committee’s subpoena,” the panel’s Chairman Bennie Thompson (D-MS) and Vice Chair Liz Cheney (R-WY) said in a statement last week.
“We have informed the former President’s counsel that he must begin producing records no later than next week and he remains under subpoena for deposition testimony starting on November 14th.”
