Grand jury refuses to indict former White House aide Cassidy Hutchinson

The Justice Department was unable to obtain a grand jury indictment against Cassidy Hutchinson, a former White House staffer who gave dramatic testimony to a House committee about the January 6, 2021 attack on the US Capitol, according to two people familiar with the matter.

The two people, who spoke to the Associated Press on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the case publicly, said a grand jury in Washington turned down prosecutors' request to return charges against her. The outcome is the latest setback for the department as it pursues perceived adversaries of Republican President Donald Trump.

The specifics of the allegations prosecutors wanted to bring were not immediately clear. Republican lawmakers, however, had accused Hutchinson of lying under oath during her 2022 appearance before the House committee investigating the insurrection.

That appearance came at a surprise hearing announced only 24 hours beforehand. Her account carried particular weight because of her closeness to power as a special assistant to Mark Meadows, who served as Trump's chief of staff.

Hutchinson described a furious and defiant president who sought to let armed protesters bypass security screenings at a rally that morning, held to protest his 2020 election defeat. She said he later lunged for the steering wheel of the presidential SUV after the Secret Service would not take him to the Capitol. As violence unfolded and the crowd chanted "Hang Mike Pence," she testified, Trump refused to step in.

Trump denied much of what she said at the time on his Truth Social platform, calling her a "total phony" and "bad news."

Hutchinson has also alleged that people in Trump's inner circle dangled job prospects and financial help while she was cooperating with the committee. She testified that her own lawyer, a former ethics counsel in the Trump White House, told her: "The less you remember, the better."

The broader legal fallout from January 6 has been mixed. The House impeached Trump in 2021 on allegations that he incited the mob, but the Senate later acquitted him. Under President Joe Biden, the Justice Department charged Trump with felonies over alleged efforts to overturn his 2020 loss, but special counsel Jack Smith abandoned the case after Trump won the 2024 presidential election. Longstanding department policy holds that a sitting president cannot be criminally prosecuted.

Hutchinson is a native of Pennington, New Jersey. She previously worked in the White House office of legislative affairs and interned for Republicans, including Representative Steve Scalise of Louisiana and Senator Ted Cruz of Texas.