Former Trump White House communications director Alyssa Farah revealed on Thursday morning that she was the one who helped Cassidy Hutchinson break out from Trump world and encouraged her to reach out to the Jan. 6 House committee.
Hutchinson, a top aide to former White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows, dramatically testified this week that Donald Trump and his allies willfully attempted to orchestrate an armed coup. She also relayed a story told to her by then-White House Deputy Chief of Staff of Operations Tony Ornato that an “irate” Trump “lunged” at his Secret Service detail when they wouldn’t take him to the Capitol after his Jan. 6 speech.
Farah, who is close personal friends with Hutchinson, stunned CNN’s New Day when she said she “put her in touch with” committee vice-chair Rep. Liz Cheney (R-WY) a couple of months ago. Noting that Hutchinson’s lawyer was previously “someone who had been in the White House counsel’s office” and “still aligned with Trump world,” the CNN contributor stated that Hutchinson reached out to her after first speaking with the committee behind closed doors.
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“She did her interview, she complied with the committee, but she shared with me: ‘There is more I want to share that was not asked in those settings. How do we do this?'” Farah explained. “In that process, she got a new attorney of her own.”
She continued: “Congresswoman Cheney had a sense of what questions needed to be asked that weren’t previously. So that’s how this shocking testimony that people didn’t realize before kind of came about, and it didn’t come up in her earlier interview, some of these facts.”
Amid the Secret Service disputing portions of Hutchinson’s testimony regarding Trump’s alleged freakout in the presidential SUV, Farah has publicly noted that Ornato—who has returned to the agency—has a history of lying after the fact. Additionally, the Washington Post’s Carol Loennig has pointed out that the Secret Service agents denying the SUV claim are Trump “yes men” who are “very close” to the ex-president.
During her Thursday CNN appearance, Farah said it is now on Ornato to publicly testify before the committee if he wants to refute Hutchinson’s account, which the ex-Trump aide has stood by. At the same time, Farah said she thinks he’ll find a way to back out.
“I’m not of the mind that he’s going to, but he’s someone I know to have been dishonest in the past,” she concluded. “I think he would lie, not under oath. He’s not going to perjure himself, I think he’s going to come up with a lot of reasons not to testify or comply with the subpoena if he’s given that opportunity.”
