Lawmakers texted Cassidy Hutchinson about ‘sexual favoritism’: Report

In June of last year, Rep. Barry Loudermilk (R-Ga.) to subpoena former Trump staffer Cassidy Hutchinson as part of the GOP’s cross-examination of the work of the committee on Jan. 6. The idea was shut down by House Rep. Mike Johnson (R-La.), apparently out of concern that Hutchinson’s testimony would mean a repeat of the firestorm her 2022 testimony created.

According to a Thursday report from Washington Post, Johnson’s office also worried that subpoenaing Hutchinson would reveal a much more embarrassing scandal: lawmakers sending her sexually explicit text messages.

According to Post, one of Johnson’s aides warned members of Loudermilk’s staff about concerns brought to their office that subpoenaing Hutchinson’s communications could “potentially reveal embarrassing information,” according to an email reviewed by Postincluding “sexual texts from members who attempted to engage in sexual services.”

While Post did not review any of the alleged text messages, they reviewed correspondence between Johnson and Loudermilk’s offices discussing the existence of the messages.

In June 2022, Hutchinson – a former aide to former White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows – testified before a House committee on January 6 about his experience of the day of the Capitol riot. Hutchinson’s testimony was a bombshell. She detailed conversations in which Meadows warned her that things could get “really, really bad on Jan. 6,” and witnessed Trump demand that security be loosened during his Ellipse rally ahead of the ruckus, and heard from Secret Service members that Trump became enraged when they refused to take him to the Capitol and entered the president’s private dining room after he threw a plate against the wall in a fit of rage.

Hutchinson also testified to that she overheard Former White House counsel Pat Cipollone sparred with Meadows over Trump’s response to rioters calling for the execution of Vice President Mike Pence. “ I remember Pat saying something like, ‘Mark, we’ve got to do something more. They are literally calling for the vice president to be bloody hanged.’ And Mark had replied something to the effect of, ‘You heard him, Pat. He thinks Mike deserves it. He does not think they are doing anything wrong.”

The revelations provided a clear window into the thinking of Trump and his senior staff on the day of the attack and turned Hutchinson into a focal point for Republican efforts to rewrite the day’s events, and undermine the work of January 6. the committee.

As chairman of the House Administration Subcommittee on Oversight, Loudermilk was tasked with preparing a counter report to the committee on Jan. 6 that disputed evidence presented in public hearings. High milk alleged that Hutchinson had “knowingly provided false testimony to the Select Committee on January 6 regarding the origin of a handwritten note given to President Trump on January 6, 2021” and that Committee Chair Liz Cheney had miscommunicated on January 6 with Hutchinson influencing her testimony.

Last year, Loudermilk repeatedly requested communications from Hutchinson regarding her contact with Cheney and senior Trump White House officials. “If she refuses to give us documents, I will not hesitate to call her in for questioning,” he wrote X last year.

The subpoena never came, but Wednesday Johnson communicated the authorization of a new subcommittee – chaired by Loudermilk – tasked with investigating the riot, as well as the work of the original investigative committee. With President Trump threatening members of the Jan. 6 committee, including Cheney, with political and prosecutorial retaliation, Republican intentions could not be more obvious.