Trump ex-Aides Worry…..

When asked about chants from Trump supporters that Vice President Mike Pence should be hanged, Ms. Hutchinson testified that her boss, the White House chief of staff, Mark Meadows, had quoted Mr. Trump as saying that “Mike deserves it.”

Current and former aides to Mr. Trump sent one another messages as the hearing took place, describing a series of disclosures that they conceded were potentially quite damaging, mostly politically but also, potentially, legally.

If Mr. Trump was indeed warned that people were armed and still encouraged them to walk to the Capitol, some advisers said privately, that could potentially bolster a charge against him related to incitement.

Others said it was exculpatory of Mr. Trump that, in his speech, he had urged protesters to march on the Capitol “peacefully.”

Within hours after Ms. Hutchinson’s testimony had concluded, a number of Trump advisers seized upon her account of Mr. Trump’s trying to grab the wheel of the S.U.V. he was being driven in as by far the most explosive new allegation against him — and the one that they most hoped to discredit.

Late Tuesday afternoon, Secret Service officials who requested anonymity to discuss the potential testimony said that both Robert Engel, the head of Mr. Trump’s protective detail, and the driver of the vehicle were prepared to state under oath that neither man was assaulted by the former president and that he did not reach for the wheel. The officials said the two men would not dispute the allegation that Mr. Trump wanted to go to the Capitol.

But several current and former Trump aides also expressed concern about the committee’s suggestion, at the tail end of the day’s hearing, that someone close to Mr. Trump has tried to tamper with or intimidate the committee’s witnesses by reminding them that Mr. Trump reads the panel’s transcripts. Such interference could be prosecuted criminally….

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