Secret Service says January 6 Committee didn’t reach out before Hutchinson testimony on Trump lunging at agent

The January 6 Committee didn’t reach out to the U.S. Secret Service (USSS) before its Tuesday hearing regarding an allegation that former President Donald Trump lunged at one of its agents and tried to grab the steering wheel of a presidential vehicle, an agency spokesman said. 

USSS spokesperson Anthony Gugliemi confirmed to Fox News Wednesday that the committee did not contact it in the days ahead of the hearing, after it was first reported by Politico. The committee did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Fox News. 

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This comes after Cassidy Hutchinson, a former aide to White House chief of staff Mark Meadows, testified Tuesday to the committee that Tony Ornato, the former deputy chief of staff for operations, told her about the incident involving Trump. According to Hutchinson, Ornato told her Trump repeatedly demanded that the Secret Service take him to the Capitol on Jan. 6. Ornato further told Hutchinson, according to her, that Trump lunged at a Secret Service agent and tried to grab the wheel of a presidential SUV when agents would not allow that.

However, a source close to Ornato told Fox News that he watched the hearing yesterday and was shocked when Hutchinson made the allegation about the steering wheel.

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Both Bobby Engel, the top agent on Trump’s Secret Service detail who was in the car, and Ornato, who was not in the car, testified to the January 6 Committee in private over the past year, the source close to Ornato said. 

Fox News previously reported that a source close to the Secret Service said both men are willing to testify under oath that Hutchinson’s story about Trump is not true.