The House committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol insurrection interviewed Secret Service spokesman Anthony Guglielmi on Monday, in part focusing on his role in issuing statements that undercut former White House aide Cassidy Hutchinson’s testimony, according to people familiar with the interview.
Lawmakers and investigators on the committee are working to finish a final report, delving into intelligence failures and why the Secret Service failed to take action after it was notified of various threats regarding Jan. 6, according to people familiar with the committee’s work.
During her live testimony in June, Hutchinson testified that Tony Ornato, the deputy chief of staff who served as a liaison for the Secret Service, told her that President Donald Trump tried to wrestle the steering wheel away from the head of his Secret Service detail, Robert Engel, after his appearance at the Stop the Steal rally on the Ellipse.
The committee repeatedly on Monday asked Guglielmi to walk through how he chose to describe Ornato and Engel’s accounts of events on Jan. 6, 2021, and the agency’s rebuttal of Hutchinson’s account of the story provided by Ornato about Trump’s behavior in the heavily fortified SUV.
During the interview, Guglielmi explained who he questioned and said then-Secret Service Director James Murray, who announced his retirement this summer, approved the statements, according to people familiar with the testimony. Deputy Director Faron Paramore also was involved in approving public statements but was not involved in the statement related to Hutchinson.
Many of the lawmakers on the panel were present for the interview. A committee spokesperson declined to comment.
A previous version of this article incorrectly said that Secret Service Deputy Director Faron Paramore approved a public statement about Cassidy Hutchinson’s testimony. Paramore was not involved in a statement immediately following her testimony. The article has been corrected.