ATLANTA — A former White House aide whose testimony was some of the most-watched and discussed during the Jan. 6 Committee hearings is now reportedly cooperating in the Fulton County probe of efforts to undermine the 2020 election in Georgia.
CNN reported Tuesday that Cassidy Hutchinson will assist prosecutors who are investigating the efforts by former President Donald Trump and his allies to overturn the election result in Georgia.
She could potentially give prosecutors insights into what went on behind the scenes at the White House during that time.
In June, Hutchinson gave two hours of testimony on national television that cast Trump as enraged by efforts to keep his armed supporters from attending his speech before many marched to the Capitol and her boss at the time, chief of staff Mark Meadows, as unwilling to confront Trump and staring unresponsively at his cellphone during key moments.
“We were watching the Capitol building get defaced over a lie,” she said.
Trump at the time denied Hutchinson's account, saying he hardly knew her and describing her as a "phony."
Prosecutors in the Fulton County DA's Office are also hoping to get Meadows to testify before the special purpose grand jury.
Earlier this month, court orders revealed that for the first time Fulton DA Fani Willis is seeking search warrants in the case, a sign that the wide-ranging probe has entered a new phase.
Willis, a Democrat, opened the investigation early last year, shortly after the release of a recording of a Jan. 2, 2021, phone call in which Trump suggested that Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger could “find” the votes needed to overturn his loss to Democrat Joe Biden.
In addition to the Trump-Raffensperger call, Willis confirmed early on that she was investigating a call that Republican U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina made to Raffensperger, the sudden departure of the U.S. attorney in Atlanta in early January 2021 and statements made during legislative committee meetings by people pushing debunked claims casting doubt on the legitimacy of the state’s election.
Court filings in recent months have also shown that Willis is interested in a slate of fake electors who signed a certificate in December 2020 falsely stating that Trump had won the state and that they were the state’s “duly elected and qualified” electors. She said in a court filing that the 16 Georgia Republicans who signed that certificate have all been notified they are targets of the investigation, meaning they could face criminal charges.
Attorneys for Rudy Giuliani, a former New York mayor and Trump lawyer, say their client has also been notified that he's a target of Willis' investigation. He appeared at state legislative committee hearings in December 2020 and made claims of election fraud in Georgia. Giuliani was also involved in coordinating the fake elector plan, Willis wrote in a court filing. He testified before the special grand jury in August.
Willis' investigation has also expanded into a breach of voting equipment at the elections office in a rural Georgia county, some 200 miles southeast of Atlanta.
Documents, emails, security video and deposition testimony produced in response to subpoenas in a long-running lawsuit have shown that lawyer Sidney Powell and other Trump allies hired a computer forensics team to go to Coffee County to make complete copies of data and software on elections equipment there. Willis is seeking testimony from Powell and has also requested documents from the company that employs the computer forensics team.
Another thread Willis seems to be pursuing is alleged attempts to pressure a Fulton County election worker. A petition filed last month indicates she wants to question Harrison Floyd, a director of Black Voices for Trump. Willis said in the petition that Floyd and Trevian Kutti, whom Willis described as a Chicago-based “purported publicist,” tried to pressure Ruby Freeman. Freeman and her daughter, Wandrea “Shaye” Moss, were election workers falsely accused by Trump allies of pulling fraudulent ballots from a suitcase during ballot counting.
As the investigation has progressed, a number of people who have been summoned to testify have tried to avoid testifying. Most have been unsuccessful.