Former Trump White House lawyer Eric Herschmann delivered a damaging blow to Cassidy Hutchinson’s testimony against former President Donald Trump on Tuesday as he claims that he wrote the handwritten note that Hutchinson told the January 6 House select committee that she wrote.
The note that Hutchinson claims that she wrote stated, “Anyone who entered the Capitol without proper authority should leave immediately.”
“Herschmann is claiming that a handwritten note regarding a potential statement for then-President Donald Trump to release during the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol was written by him during a meeting at the White House that afternoon, and not by White House aide Cassidy Hutchinson,” ABC News reported. “At Tuesday’s Jan. 6 committee hearing, Rep. Liz Cheney displayed a handwritten note which Hutchinson testified she wrote after Trump chief of staff Mark Meadows handed her a note card and pen to take his dictation.”
One source familiar with the matter confirmed to The Daily Wire that Herschmann is claiming that he wrote the note, and not Hutchinson.
“The handwritten note that Cassidy Hutchinson testified was written by her was in fact written by Eric Herschmann on January 6, 2021,” a spokesperson for Eric Herschmann told ABC News. “All sources with direct knowledge and law enforcement have and will confirm that it was written by Mr. Herschmann.”
Herschmann is a widely respected attorney who came came out of quasi-retirement to protect Trump against those around the president who were giving him bad advice.
“Anyone that has ever worked with Eric Herschmann knows that the handwriting on that note is his,” political strategist Arthur Schwartz wrote on Twitter. “Cassidy lied through her teeth and Liz Cheney knew she was lying.”
The credibility of the explosive claims that Hutchinson made during her testimony was further weakened on Tuesday afternoon when reports surfaced indicating that the Secret Service was expected to push back on claims that she made.
Hutchinson, a former aide to White House chief of staff Mark Meadows, claimed that Trump on the day of the January 6 rally tried to get Secret Service to take him to the U.S. Capitol building, and that he became enraged when they would not do it because the area was not secure.
Hutchinson claimed that Trump tried to grab the steering wheel of the armored presidential limousine and that Bobby Engel, who was the lead security detail, had to tell him, “Sir, you need to take your hand off the steering wheel.” Hutchinson claimed that Trump then lunged at and assaulted the agent.
Hutchinson claims that she was told this information from Anthony Ornato, a senior Secret Service official who was detailed to the White House and served as deputy chief of operations.
CNN’s Shimon Prokupecz reported that “a Secret Service official familiar with the matter told CNN that Tony Ornato denies telling Cassidy Hutchinson that the former president grabbed the steering wheel or an agent on his detail.”
John Santucci, executive editorial producer for ABC News, added that the Secret Service is expected to come out and deny Hutchinson’s claims.
“Source close to the Secret Service tells @PierreTABC to expect the Secret Service to push back against any allegation of an assault against an agent or President Trump reaching for the steering wheel,” Santucci said.
“Tony Ornato is denying that he told Cassidy Hutchinson Trump grabbed the steering wheel in presidential vehicle on 1/6 or lunged at a fellow agent, a USSS official tells @joshscampbell,” Gabby Orr, a CNN reporter, tweeted. “CNN confirms that Ornato & Engel are prepared to testify that neither incident occurred.”
NBC News Chief White House Correspondent Peter Alexander tweeted, “A source close to the Secret Service tells me both Bobby Engel, the lead agent, and the presidential limousine/SUV driver are prepared to testify under oath that neither man was assaulted and that Mr. Trump never lunged for the steering wheel.”
This report has been updated to include additional information.