The January 6 Committee did not reach out to Secret Service ahead of its Tuesday hearing when the panel heard an allegation about former President Donald Trump lunging at an agent and trying to grab the wheel, an agency spokesman told Fox News.
The allegation was made by Cassidy Hutchinson, a former aide to White House chief of staff Mark Meadows. According to her testimony, Tony Ornato, the former deputy chief of staff for operations, told her that the former president went furious when his repeated requests to take him to the Capitol on January 6 were denied by Secret Service agents. Trump allegedly snapped at an agent and tried to grab the steering wheel of the presidential SUV.
However, Fox News has reported that a source close to Ornato claims that the former official was shocked to hear the allegations. According to the network's previous reports, Bobby Engel, the top agent on Trump's Secret Service detail in the car at the time, was allegedly likewise willing to testify under oath that the story is untrue.
A similar sentiment was reportedly voiced by Ornato himself.
Hutchinson's testimony made waves on social media, with outraged Trump defenders quickly castigating her as "Amber Heard 2.0", drawing a parallel with the bombshell trial between Johnny Depp and his ex-wife who is now accused of being a "liar". According to critics, Hutchinson's testimony was based on hearsay.
The former White House aide, however, "stands by all of [her] testimony", according to her lawyers' statement.
Trump, in turn, has vehemently denied Hutchinson's story, slamming her as "a total phony and 'leaker'".
"Her Fake story that I tried to grab the steering wheel of the White House Limousine in order to steer it to the Capitol building is "sick" and fraudulent, very much like the Unselect Committee itself," Trump wrote in one of his statements about the matter. "Wouldn't even have been possible to do such a ridiculous thing."