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Secret Service says will respond to Jan. 6 panel, after Hutchinson testified Trump, agents clashed

Agents reportedly say they will dispute with first hand accounts part of Hutchinson's Tuesday testimony.

Published: June 29, 2022 7:30am

Updated: June 29, 2022 7:56am

The Secret Service says it will speak again with the January 6 House panel – following testimony Tuesday from former White House aide Cassidy Hutchinson in which she said an agent had to restrain former President Trump that day inside a vehicle when told he couldn't go to the Capitol.

"The United States Secret Service has been cooperating with the Select Committee since its inception in spring 2021, and will continue to do so, including by responding on the record to the Committee regarding the new allegations surfaced in today's testimony," a spokesperson for the service told CBS News. 

In a last minute hearing on Tuesday, Hutchinson told the committee that she spoke with the White House deputy chief of staff for operations, Tony Ornato, in a room with Secret Service special agent in charge on January 6, Robert Engel. According to Hutchinson's testimony, during the meeting, Ornato said that Trump had become "irate" in his vehicle when he was told that they would not be going to the Capitol and ultimately attempted to reach to the front of the vehicle and grab the steering wheel.

CBS News reports that sources close to the Secret Service have confirmed that Engel and the vehicle's driver are prepared to testify under oath that neither man was physically assaulted by Trump, nor did the the former president ever lunge for the steering wheel. 

According to the same report, both Ornato and Engel have appeared before the panel on the record, though neither recorded session was used during Tuesday's hearing.

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