President Donald J. Trump had simply delivered his fiery speech on the Ellipse early on the afternoon of Jan. 6, 2021, setting in movement the assault by his supporters on the Capitol.
When he acquired into his armored car after the speech, Mr. Trump instantly introduced up a subject he usually broached after his public appearances: How massive was the gang?
However inside 30 seconds, his dialog along with his lead Secret Service agent took a extra contentious flip, in accordance with a transcript launched on Monday of an interview by Home investigators of one other Secret Service agent who was driving the automotive. Mr. Trump needed to go to the Capitol, however his lead agent, Robert Engel, stated no, telling him there was no plan in place.
“The president was insistent on going to the Capitol,” recounted the motive force, whose title was not disclosed. “It was clear to me he needed to go to the Capitol. He was not screaming at Mr. Engel. He was not screaming at me. Definitely his voice was raised, however it didn’t appear to me that he was irate — actually not, actually didn’t appear as irritated or agitated as he had on the best way to the Ellipse.”
However, the motive force stated, Mr. Trump by no means lunged for the steering wheel or bodily accosted the brokers, contradicting probably the most sensational and hotly disputed components of testimony given to the Home Jan. 6 committee by a White Home aide. The transcript of the motive force is the primary in depth eyewitness account of what occurred within the armored car to be made public.
“I didn’t see him attain,” the Secret Service driver instructed investigators for the Home panel. “He by no means grabbed the steering wheel. I didn’t see him, you understand, lunge to attempt to get into the entrance seat in any respect. You understand, what stood out was the irritation in his voice, greater than his bodily presence.”
The driving force’s transcript provides element to one of the crucial scrutinized episodes of Jan. 6, 2021. The transcript was by no means launched publicly by the Home Jan. 6 committee, which entered into an settlement with the Secret Service relating to 12 interviews to keep away from disclosing “privateness data, for-official-use-only data, intelligence and regulation enforcement delicate data and uncooked intelligence data.”
Republicans have recommended that the panel didn’t launch the transcript as a result of it contradicts parts of a public account of the incident from a outstanding witness, Cassidy Hutchinson, who served as an aide to Mark Meadows, the White Home chief of employees on the time. Ms. Hutchinson testified in June 2022 that she had heard about what occurred from others second- or thirdhand. Republicans have faulted the panel’s determination to advertise her account of Mr. Trump’s conduct within the car.
A letter from Jonathan E. Meyer, the final counsel for the Division of Homeland Safety, supplied a cause that the motive force’s transcript had not been launched. The Home committee requested that the division assessment the transcripts for delicate data that ought to be protected against disclosure in order that the rest might turn out to be “a part of the historic document.”
Greater than a yr after the motive force was interviewed in November 2022, the company was nonetheless reviewing the transcripts, Mr. Meyer wrote to Home Republicans in February. He stated the company decided it might launch redacted variations of six interviews, together with the motive force’s, to Republicans who’re investigating the committee’s work whereas on the lookout for irregularities or indicators of bias.
The Republicans launched a replica of their report into the committee’s work on Monday afternoon, pillorying the Division of Homeland Safety for taking so lengthy to launch sure transcripts and criticizing situations during which Ms. Hutchinson modified or corrected her testimony.
“This firsthand testimony immediately contradicts Cassidy Hutchinson’s story and the previous J6 choose committee’s narrative,” stated Consultant Barry Loudermilk, the Georgia Republican who has been main the Home G.O.P. effort to analyze the work of the Jan. 6 committee for bias. “Though the choose committee had this important data, they nonetheless promoted Ms. Hutchinson’s thirdhand model of occasions of their last report.”
Former aides to the choose committee counter that the panel’s last report included particulars of interviews with the motive force and that there was no cover-up. The ultimate report additionally makes reference to the testimony of Mr. Engel, though neither transcript was launched on the time.
“Engel didn’t characterize the trade within the car the best way Hutchinson described the account she heard from Ornato, and indicated that he didn’t recall President Trump gesturing towards him,” the Jan. 6 committee’s report said, referring to Anthony M. Ornato, the White Home deputy chief of employees and an energetic Secret Service agent whom Ms. Hutchinson cited as one supply of the story she relayed.
The panel’s report added, “The driving force testified that he didn’t recall seeing what President Trump was doing and didn’t recall whether or not there was motion.”
“It’s troublesome to totally reconcile the accounts of a number of of the witnesses who supplied data with what we heard from Engel and Ornato,” the report concluded. “However the principal factual level right here is obvious and undisputed: President Trump particularly and repeatedly requested to be taken to the Capitol. He was insistent and indignant, and continued to push to journey to the Capitol even after returning to the White Home.”
The driving force’s transcript is probably the most detailed firsthand account up to now of how Mr. Trump behaved inside his presidential motorcade that day, touring the brief distance from the White Home to the Ellipse.
Mr. Trump had already begun the morning in a “fairly agitated, fairly irritated” temper on his method to the Ellipse, the motive force testified. The president’s voice contained a “tinge of anger” as he spoke with Mr. Engel, who rode with him within the car.
The driving force stated Mr. Trump was indignant at Vice President Mike Pence, who had been resisting Mr. Trump’s efforts to dam congressional certification that day of Joseph R. Biden Jr.’s Electoral School victory.
“I don’t keep in mind precisely how he phrased it, however my recollection is that he was upset that the vp was unwilling to not certify the Electoral School,” the motive force testified.
After the speech, during which Mr. Trump repeated his baseless claims of election fraud, assailed Mr. Pence and fired up the gang of his supporters, he acquired again within the armored S.U.V. and began demanding to go to the Capitol together with the gang to protest the congressional certification.
“Most likely inside 30 seconds or so, if not lower than that of getting within the automotive, after asking about crowd sizes,” the motive force testified. He added that crowd sizes had been a continuing supply of curiosity for Mr. Trump: “That was fairly typical of that president.”
Mr. Trump, he stated, appeared unconvinced that an unplanned journey posed a safety menace, provided that the gang on the Capitol can be his supporters.
“I don’t keep in mind precisely what prompted it or how that portion of the dialog type of grew organically, however he was pushing fairly exhausting to go,” the agent testified. He added, “The factor that stands out most was he stored asking why we couldn’t go, why we couldn’t go, and that he wasn’t involved in regards to the folks that had been there or referenced them being Trump folks or Trump supporters.”
In some unspecified time in the future through the journey to the Ellipse or on the best way again, the motive force testified, Mr. Trump and Mr. Engel mentioned why folks within the crowd had been being stored again from the speech web site, with Mr. Engel telling the president that they’d “prohibited objects of some kind.”
Mr. Trump’s conduct within the motorcade was highlighted in Ms. Hutchinson’s blockbuster testimony. She stated she had been instructed by Mr. Ornato that Mr. Trump tried to seize the wheel of his car when he was instructed he couldn’t go to the Capitol to affix his supporters, a few of whom he had been instructed had been armed. Ms. Hutchinson additionally stated Mr. Ornato instructed her the president “lunged” at Mr. Engel.
Secret Service officers have lengthy disputed parts of that account. Company officers have stated Mr. Engel, Mr. Ornato and the motive force of the Suburban might affirm that Mr. Trump demanded his brokers take him to the Capitol, even after they emphasised that it was too harmful for him to go.
Nonetheless, the motive force stated he had not anticipated violence on the Capitol and was shocked by what he noticed.
“What occurred on the Capitol was mind-bogglingly dangerous and appalling,” he stated. “At that time, it was clear what was taking place within the metropolis and on the Capitol, and it was simply — defies expectation in a civilized society.”
