On Tuesday, the release of another another set of transcripts from the January 6 committee, including two more of its meetings with the controversial witness Cassidy Hutchinson and evidence from several other Trump White House staffers.
According to Hutchinson, the transcripts provided fresh insight into the habitual document destruction practices of the former White House top of staff Mark Meadows at the time of the transition. She added that Meadows periodically instructed employees to keep some Oval Office sessions “tight hold” in order to avoid having them recorded in official records.
Hutchinson’s conflicting loyalties were revealed in further detail, which finally caused her to switch attorneys and provide devastating evidence about what she seen and overheard at the White House following the 2020 presidential election.
The most recent batch of transcripts also made public some of the crazy hypotheses, rumors, and QAnon conspiracy theories that were discussed within the White House when Donald Trump was still president and refused to accept the results of the election.
Burned White House Documents
According to Hutchinson, a senior Meadows adviser, Meadows instructed White House workers to “shut hold” several Oval Office meetings during the transition period, perhaps excluding sessions from the official record.
Hutchinson also testified that the Oval Office journal had “some items that had perhaps been left out.”
In a meeting Meadows convened for outside Oval Office personnel towards the end of November or the beginning of December 2020, Hutchinson reported Meadows saying, “Let’s keep these meetings close hold. We will discuss what it implies, but for the time being we will keep things very tight-lipped and confidential to prevent information from starting to slip out.
She stated she was not aware of any explicit directives Meadows issued to keep material from January 6 on “close hold,” but admitted she couldn’t remember whether there was any specific information Meadows intended to keep on “close hold.”
She also informed the committee that between December 2020 and mid-January 2021, she observed Meadows burn papers in his office fireplace approximately a dozen times, or once or twice every week.
Multiple Occasions
Hutchinson said that she was in Meadows’ office on multiple occasions when he tossed paperwork into the fireplace following a meeting. At least twice, the burning took place following meetings with Pennsylvania Republican and GOP Rep. Scott Perry, who has been connected to plans to use the Justice Department to rig the 2020 election. Document-burning allegations against Meadows have previously been covered by the New York Times and Politico.
Hutchinson said she was unaware of the nature of the papers, their originality, and whether or not their preservation was mandated by law.
