New Report Sheds Light on Donald Trump’s Jan. 6 Actions

A new report of a released transcript interview with a Secret Service agent on Monday sheds light on Donald Trump’s actions on January 6, 2021.

Trump is accused of inciting the January 6, 2021, Capitol riot by spreading unfound claims of widespread voter fraud to his 2020 election supporters. It led to a violent protest as part of a larger effort to block Joe Biden’s 2020 Electoral College victory. Trump has maintained his innocence, accusing prosecutors of investigating him to derail him politically.

Since the riot, there have been claims that Trump lunged at a Secret Service agent’s throat and grabbed the steering wheel of the presidential limousine in an attempt to join his supporters rioting at the Capitol. Cassidy Hutchinson, a former aide to White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows, made the claim in a January 6 select committee hearing in 2022, adding that she did not have direct knowledge of the incident, but that another secret service agent recounted it to her. Trump has previously denied these claims.

On Monday, a newly released transcript of an interview by House investigators of a Secret Service agent who drove Trump’s vehicle on January 6 disputes that Trump tried to grab the steering wheel or lunged at another agent, according to the New York Times.

Newsweek has reached out to Trump’s spokesperson via email for comment.

According to the transcript, Trump wanted to go to the Capitol, but his lead agent, Robert Engel, told him no and that there was no plan in place.

“The president was insistent on going to the Capitol,” the driver, whose name was not disclosed said. “It was clear to me he wanted to go to the Capitol. He was not screaming at Mr. Engel. He was not screaming at me. Certainly his voice was raised, but it did not seem to me that he was irate — certainly not, certainly didn’t seem as irritated or agitated as he had on the way to the Ellipse.”

The secret service agent continued to state that Trump never lunged for the steering wheel or at Engel, however, he added that Trump’s voice stood out more in that moment.

“I did not see him reach,” the Secret Service driver told investigators for the House panel. “He never grabbed the steering wheel. I didn’t see him, you know, lunge to try to get into the front seat at all. You know, what stood out was the irritation in his voice, more than his physical presence.”

The driver’s transcript comes after the claim has been scrutinized following Hutchinson’s testimony in 2022 as Secret Service officials have disputed portions of that account.

Republicans have also previously suggested that the panel did not release the transcript because it contradicts portions of Hutchinson’s account.

However, the transcript was never released publicly by the House January 6 committee, which entered into an agreement with the Secret Service regarding 12 interviews, to avoid disclosing “privacy information, for-official-use-only information, intelligence and law enforcement sensitive records and raw intelligence information.”

Meanwhile, Trump was indicted by the Department of Justice on four counts in August 2023: conspiracy to defraud the United States; conspiracy to obstruct an official proceeding; obstruction of and attempt to obstruct an official proceeding; and conspiracy against rights. The former president has pleaded not guilty and said the case against him is politically motivated.