January 6th Witness Who Reported Trump Phone Call Was White House Staffer, Sources Say

Tuesday’s public January 6th Committee hearing was revelation-packed, but perhaps the most astounding piece of information to come out of it was about something that took place not during Donald Trump’s last weeks in office, but during these last weeks of hearings. A witness reported that Trump tried to make contact by phone — and now we know slightly more about who that witness was.

At the end of Tuesday’s hearing, Representative Liz Cheney dropped the news that Donald Trump had apparently tried to call a witness, one who has not yet been seen in the public hearings. She did not make clear whether that individual has already been interviewed, but the implication was that this call could be an effort to influence what the witness would tell the Committee and the public.

Now CNN has reported that they’ve been given further information about the identity of the witness in question, though they were not given a name. Instead, sources identified the individual as a White House staffer — specifically, someone who would be in a position to corroborate testimony given by Cassidy Hutchinson.

Liz Cheney initially described the call as coming after Hutchinson’s testimony, and in a previous hearing revealed that someone — later identified as Hutchinson herself — had been contacted by an unidentified individual who tried to sway her testimony.

Trump typically follows these hearings with posts to Truth Social, where he denies the testimony and attacks the witnesses and panel. Notably, on Tuesday, he did not attack the witnesses from that day, both of whom admitted to participating in the attack on the Capitol, nor did he post a denial of the allegation of witness tampering.

Instead, he reiterated his attacks on Hutchinson.

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In true Trumpian fashion, the former president simultaneously accuses Hutchinson of making up her story, and of being a “leaker.”

Hutchinson’s testimony included witnessing that Trump knew the mob was armed and was happy to send them to the Capitol that way; that he said Mike Pence “deserved” the threats on his life from the attackers; and that he was determined to join his fans at the Capitol and had a full-fledged tantrum when he wasn’t allowed to do so.