Trump aides at heart of Jan. 6 claims said to have hired lawyers

Presidential security officials at the center of an explosive allegation about then-President Donald Trump‘s demand to go to the Capitol on Jan. 6 have retained private counsel, according to a member of the House committee investigating the riot.

“Some of the officers said that they would be coming and talking under oath,” select committee member Zoe Lofgren, D-Calif., told reporters Thursday night after the panel’s latest public hearing.

“They have not come in, and they recently retained private counsel, which is unusual but they have a right to do that,” Lofgren said.

She specified that those officers are Tony Ornato, then a top Trump aide who was also a Secret Service agent, and Robert Engel, the former head of Trump’s security detail. The driver of the vehicle that took Trump back to the White House after a rally that preceded the Capitol riot has also retained private counsel, Lofgren said.

Those officials were cited by former White House official Cassidy Hutchinson in jaw-dropping sworn public testimony before the select committee last month.

Hutchinson described hearing from Ornato on Jan. 6, 2021, that Trump lunged at Engel inside a presidential vehicle after being told that the Secret Service would not drive him to the U.S. Capitol following his rally.

“Tony described him as being irate,” she testified, adding that Trump had apparently said something like, “‘I’m the effing president, take me up to the Capitol now!'”

Trump had grabbed for the steering wheel of that vehicle, Hutchinson said Ornato told her, at which point Engel grabbed Trump’s arm and told him to stop. Trump “then used his free hand to lunge toward Bobby Engel,” Hutchinson testified.

She noted that Engel was in the room when Ornato relayed this account, and that he did not deny it at the time and has not done so since.

But Trump quickly denied Hutchinson’s testimony, calling it “fake” and claiming it would have been impossible for him to reach for the steering wheel.

Unnamed sources associated with the Secret Service then appeared to cast doubt on Hutchinson’s testimony through statements to numerous reporters.

NBC News, citing a source close to the agency, reported that Engel and the driver of the vehicle were prepared to testify under oath that Trump never reached for the wheel. CNN reported another Secret Service official saying that Ornato denied telling Hutchinson that Trump lunged for the wheel or for Engel.

Hutchinson’s lawyer, Jody Hunt, responded on Twitter that his client “testified, under oath, and recounted what she was told. Those with knowledge of the episode also should…