Grand Jury Declines to Indict Cassidy Hutchinson Over January 6 Testimony

A federal grand jury in Washington, D.C., declined to indict former White House aide Cassidy Hutchinson over her testimony about January 6, 2021, according to people familiar with the proceedings. The decision emerged on October 27 as a Justice Department lawyer discussed an unsuccessful attempt to obtain an indictment during a hearing in another matter. Neville Hedley, a lawyer in the department's Civil Rights Division, told US Magistrate Judge Zia Faruqui that prosecutors had received a “non-concurrence” from a grand jury. Hedley did not name the person prosecutors had sought to charge. People briefed on the proceedings separately identified that person as Hutchinson, distinguishing their account of the target from what the prosecutor disclosed in court. Hutchinson served as an aide to Mark Meadows, Donald Trump's White House chief of staff. She testified before the House committee investigating the January 6 attack in 2022. Her testimony included a secondhand account of Trump's conduct in his motorcade, attributed to former White House official Tony Ornato; people who were with Trump disputed that account. The precise testimony prosecutors examined was not established in the reporting. The Justice Department had not responded to a request for comment, and Hutchinson's attorneys had not answered requests for comment. The accounts did not identify a scheduled next hearing or say that the investigation had ended.