WASHINGTON, June 29, 2022 (BSS/AFP) - Former US president Donald Trump
angrily lunged at his Secret Service driver and grabbed at the steering wheel
of his limousine in a bid to join the crowd as it marched on the Capitol on
the day of the deadly insurrection, an aide testified Tuesday.

In some of the most explosive testimony so far to the House committee probing
the violence, Cassidy Hutchinson, an assistant to Trump's chief of staff Mark
Meadows, said the president had demanded to be taken to the Capitol after his
speech near the White House.

Trump became irate when he was told that it was impossible for security
reasons, and he tried to wrestle the Secret Service for control of his
official car, Hutchinson testified.

"I'm the effing president, take me up to the Capitol now," Trump said,
according to Hutchinson, who testified that the story was relayed to her by
another administration official.

Trump, apparently watching the televised hearing, attempted to discredit
Hutchinson in real time in a multiple-post rant on his social media network,
dismissing the episode as a "fake story" and calling the hearing a "kangaroo
court."

US media later reported that the secret agents involved may be willing to
testify and deny her account.

The US Secret Service did not respond to AFP's request for comment.

The congressional panel has spent a year investigating the January 6, 2021
riot that temporarily halted the certifying by Congress of the presidential
election result.

It has now held six public hearings to outline its initial finding -- that
Trump led a criminal conspiracy to overturn his defeat to Joe Biden that led
to the violence.

Hutchinson was a central figure in the administration and able to offer the
committee its first blow-by-blow account of activity inside the White House.

She testified that Trump and some of his top lieutenants were aware of the
possibility of violence -- contradicting claims that the assault was
spontaneous and had nothing to do with the administration.

- 'Things might get real, real bad' -

Hutchinson said she recalled Meadows saying four days before the
insurrection: "Things might get real, real bad on January 6."

Hutchinson had sought out her boss, she said, after a White House meeting
involving Trump's lawyer Rudy Giuliani. As they were leaving, Giuliani asked
her if she was "excited" for January 6.

When she asked what Giuliani meant, Hutchinson recalled that he "responded
something to the effect of, 'We're going to the Capitol.'"

"'It's going to be great. The president's going to be there. He's going to
look powerful... Talk to the chief about it. He knows about it.'"

She told Meadows what Giuliani had said, she testified.

"He didn't look up from his phone and said something to the effect of,
'There's a lot going on, Cass, but I don't know. Things might get real, real
bad on January 6,'" Hutchinson told the hearing.

Meadows and Trump were aware of the possibility of violence, including that
members of the pro-Trump mob were armed when they gathered near the White
House on the day of the riot, Hutchinson said.

- Armed protesters -

When she told Meadows violence had erupted, Meadows "almost had a lack of
reaction," Hutchinson said.

Vice chair Liz Cheney said the committee had obtained police reports that
people at the Trump rally on the Ellipse had knives, Tasers, pepper spray and
blunt objects that could be used as weapons.

Police transmissions played at the hearing showed that others outside the
rally had firearms including AR-15 semi-automatic rifles.

Hutchinson described an exchange between Meadows and White House Counsel Pat
Cipollone soon after the rioters broke into the US Capitol, during which the
lawyer said Trump needed to call off the mob chanting for his vice president
Mike Pence to be hanged.

"He doesn't want to do anything, Pat," Hutchinson recalls Meadows telling
Cipollone. Trump "thinks Mike deserves it," Hutchinson recalled Meadows
adding.

Meadows, who asked for a pardon related to January 6, refused to testify
before the panel since handing over thousands of text messages and other
documents in the early stages of the investigation.

The latest hearing was announced at last minute amid concerns for
Hutchinson's security. Cheney suggested that that former Trump officials were
trying to intimidate witnesses.