A federal grand jury Tuesday declined to indict Cassidy Hutchinson — the former White House aide turned star witness against President Donald Trump — on criminal charges, a senior U.S. official confirmed to NBC News.
Prosecutors were attempting to indict Hutchinson for statements she made about Trump’s actions on Jan. 6, 2021.
The grand jury in Washington returned a “no bill,” meaning the grand jury rejected efforts by the Justice Department to indict Hutchinson. Her name was not mentioned in the courtroom when the no bill was announced, but the senior U.S. official confirmed it was the Hutchinson case.
Attorneys for Hutchinson did not immediately return requests for comment, nor did the Justice Department.
The Justice Department’s investigation had centered on Hutchinson’s 2022 testimony before the now-defunct Democratic-led congressional Jan. 6 committee, which Trump railed against for years.
The failure to secure an indictment is the latest in a string of such denials in cases the Justice Department has brought against those Trump has portrayed as his political enemies.
The Hutchinson case was brought by officials in the Civil Rights Division, which is headed by Trump appointee Harmeet Dhillon. The division has traditionally sought to protect constitutional freedoms by enforcing federal civil rights and anti-discrimination laws.
The grand jury’s refusal to indict Hutchinson does not bar the DOJ from attempting to charge her again in the future.
Trump has called Hutchinson a “scam artist” who lied under oath and has suggested she be prosecuted.
“What is the Justice Department going to do about this?” he wrote in a 2022 post on Truth Social. In March, he posted a link to a Breitbart article about House Republicans referring her to the Justice Department for prosecution.
Hutchinson, who’d been a senior aide to then-White House chief of staff Mark Meadows, made several damaging claims to the committee about Trump’s behavior in the days leading up to the Jan. 6, 2021, storming of the U.S. Capitol and during the riot itself.
Among the incidents she testified about were the president urging that metal detectors be removed from the area near the White House where he was speaking on Jan. 6. She quoted him as saying the rally attendees are “not here to hurt me,” and “I don’t f—ing care that they have weapons.”
Hutchinson also testified that the president was determined to go to the Capitol on Jan. 6, and that she’d been told by a Secret Service official that Trump grabbed for the steering wheel of the presidential limo — and the throat of one of his bodyguards — when the bodyguard refused to take him to the Capitol.
Secret Service officials later denied that account. Hutchinson has maintained that she provided truthful testimony.
A grand jury heard evidence against Hutchinson in early October, a person familiar with the effort told NBC News this month.
The Justice Department has been investigating and in some cases secured indictments of Trump’s perceived political enemies. Those who’ve been investigated or charged include Sen. Adam Schiff, D-Calif.; former CIA Director John Brennan; New York Attorney General Letitia James; and former FBI Director James Comey. Trump has accused all four of criminal wrongdoing, which they’ve denied.
After an initial case against James was dismissed on technical grounds, the Justice Department attempted to secure an indictment against her three separate times, all of which were denied.
The Trump administration also tried and failed to indict six sitting Democratic members of Congress over a social media video Trump disliked that told members of the military and intelligence communities not to obey unlawful orders.
Attorney General Todd Blanche told NBC News in April that the failed prosecutions showed “that we’re working hard.”
“It could be that the grand jury just made the wrong decision,” he said then, referring broadly to failed indictments. “The grand jurors don’t get everything right, just like nobody gets everything right all the time. So some of those, it’s a tough case, and some of those we’re continuing to investigate.”
The spike in denials led the chief federal judge in Washington to issue a new policy this year requiring the Justice Department to notify the magistrate judge on duty when a federal grand jury rejects the department’s attempt to indict an individual.
The failed presentation in Hutchinson’s case comes as Trump has continued to try to rewrite the narrative about the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol during the presidential vote certification.
He pardoned the rioters — including ones convicted of attacking law enforcement officers — on the first day of his second term, and reached an agreement with the Justice Department this year to launch a $1.8 billion “anti-weaponization fund” that could provide government payouts to those involved in the attack.
The proposed fund, which was part of a settlement of an unrelated lawsuit Trump had filed against the IRS, was later scuttled.
