Audio of a former Trump security official’s testimony is played during a House January 6 committee hearing.
Alex Brandon-Pool/Getty Images
A former Trump White House security official said there were fears about Trump on January 6.
The unnamed official testified that if Trump went to the Capitol it would move to an “insurrection.”
The testimony was played during Thursday night’s January 6 committee hearing.
A former Trump White House security official said that there were fears that if President Donald Trump marched to the Capitol on January 6 that a “coup” could be underway.
“To be completely honest, we were all in a state of shock,” an unnamed security aide testified before the House January 6 committee. “I think the actual physical feasibility of doing it, and then also, we knew what that implicated and what that meant, that this was no longer a rally, that this was going to move to something else if he physically walked to the Capitol.”
Crucially, the security official’s testimony appears to confirm what former Trump aide Cassidy Hutchinson previously told the panel. Hutchinson said that Trump was aware that armed supporters were trying to attend his January 6 rally and didn’t care.
The security official said it was clear to those around Trump that there could be serious trouble if the president marched to the Capitol as he said during his January 6 speech. Multiple witnesses have testified before the January 6 committee that Trump and his allies planned for days for him to march to the Capitol as lawmakers formally certified his election loss.
“I don’t know if you want to use the word insurrection, coup, whatever, we all knew that this would move from a normal, democratic, you know, public event into something else,” the security official said.
January 6 panel members said the security official is unnamed because there are credible fears that there could be repercussions to the person based on their testimony.
Trump has previously disputed Hutchinson’s claim that he asked for his security officials to stop using metal detectors even though the security precautions were identifying weapons. Hutchinson testified under oath. The former president just made his claims on social media.
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