Agent who wants to discredit Cassidy Hutchinson testimony has history of lying for Trump
According to a Politico last week, Tony Ornato, an administration official for former President Donald Trump has come under sharp scrutiny from the House Select Committee investigating the Jan. 6 Capitol attack, after he said he would dispute several key points made by former Trump aide Cassidy Hutchinson at her surprise hearing before the committee last week.
“Ornato, a Secret Service official who served a year as a political appointee in Trump’s White House, has reportedly signaled a willingness to contradict a high-profile element of Hutchinson’s testimony: that Ornato told her former President Donald Trump lunged toward the head of his detail on Jan. 6, 2021, in a push to be driven to the Capitol and join his supporters trying to disrupt Congress.”
Cheney continues:
“But several members of the select panel say Ornato, not Hutchinson, is the one with credibility problems — and have moved to publicly preempt any doubts he might raise.”
Rep Adam Kinzinger (R. Ill) added on Twitter that “There seems to be a major thread here… Tony Ornato likes to lie.”
Rep. Stephanie Murphy (D. Fl.), who is also a member of the Jan. 6 committee, said in an interview last week with NBC that Ornato “did not have as clear of memories from this period of time’ as Hutchinson did.”
“Donald Trump” by Gage Skidmore is licensed with CC BY-SA 2.0. To view a copy of this license, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0/
Hutchinson now infamously made a number of claims about Trump and details about what happened on Jan. 6, including an incident with Trump and Secret Service agents and that Trump knew his supporters were armed as they marched to the Capitol and wanted them to be allowed into the Capitol anyway, because “they’re not here to hurt me.”
The NYT continues:
“Ornato, a veteran Secret Service agent of more than two decades with stints in the presidential protection division under former Presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama, was detailed to the White House by Trump in late 2019 and appointed deputy chief of staff, an unusual arrangement for a law enforcement official. He has interviewed twice with the select committee — once in January and once in March, according to two people familiar with his appearances.”
January 6 Capitol Riots via Flickr / Tyler Merbler https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/
Reporters have also questioned Ornato’s credibility. Notably, Carol Leonnig told MSNBC that Ornato is nothing more than “a Trump acolyte.”
