WASHINGTON — The Jan. 6 committee on Thursday interviewed Bobby Engel, who was the lead Secret Service agent for then-President Donald Trump when the riot passed off, three sources acquainted informed NBC Information.
Engel may present key testimony associated to data shared by Cassidy Hutchinson, who was a high aide to then-White Home chief of workers Mark Meadows. She delivered bombshell testimony earlier than the committee throughout a public listening to this summer season.
Hutchinson testified that she was informed Trump tried to seize the steering wheel inside an armored SUV and lunged towards his safety element when he realized that he wouldn’t be taken to the Capitol following his rally on Jan. 6.
Hutchinson stated Tony Ornato, the White Home deputy chief of workers for operations, informed her in regards to the incident. She additionally stated Engel had not disputed Ornato’s account. Ornato and Engel each testified earlier than the committee previous to Hutchinson’s testimony.
The Jan. 6 panel declined to touch upon Engel’s interview. CNN was the primary to report the information.
The Secret Service offered congressional investigators with greater than 1 million digital communications despatched by brokers within the lead-up to and throughout the riot on the Capitol, in keeping with two sources conversant in the matter, NBC Information reported in October.
At the start of November, committee investigators have been scheduled to satisfy with a Secret Service agent who was within the lead automobile of Trump’s motorcade on the day of the riot on the Capitol.
Earlier this week, the committee stated it was weighing its choices after Trump didn’t adjust to a subpoena calling on him to look for a closed-door deposition on Monday.
Trump requested a courtroom in Florida to block enforcement of the subpoena, which demanded the previous president hand over data of any communications he could have had concerning extremist teams concerned within the Jan. 6 riot and any makes an attempt of his previously yr to contact witnesses testifying earlier than the committee. The subpoena additionally required that he sit for a deposition on Nov. 14, which he didn’t.