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Tag Archives: testified
‘He knows he lost’: Cassidy Hutchinson testified that Trump acknowledged he lost 2020 election
Washington
CNN
—
Shortly after the 2020 election was called for Joe Biden, then-White House chief of staff Mark Meadows told his aide, Cassidy Hutchinson, that President Donald Trump knew he lost but wanted to keep fighting to overturn the results, according to a newly released transcript from the House select committee investigating the January 6 insurrection.
The transcript of Hutchinson’s September 14, 2022, interview with the committee, which took place after she testified publicly, was released Thursday by the panel. It details post-election conversations that Hutchinson described, where multiple people said Trump acknowledged he had lost but was unwilling to concede.
Hutchinson testified that Meadows told her on November 18, 2020, that Trump “has pretty much acknowledged that he’s lost,” the transcript says.
“A lot of times he’ll tell me that he lost, but he wants to keep fighting it, and he thinks that there might be enough to overturn the election,” Meadows told Hutchinson that day about Trump, according to her retelling of the conversation.
Hutchinson also testified that in late December 2020, Meadows lamented to her that Trump would get upset any time he mentioned the transition, telling the committee that Meadows said something to the effect of: “he’s just so angry at me all the time I can’t talk to him about anything post-White House without him getting mad that we didn’t win.”
“Later in the interview, Hutchinson told the committee she spoke with Meadows immediately after a call with Georgia officials on January 2, 2021, where Trump pushed officials to help overturn the election results there.”
“He said something to the effect of, ‘he knows it’s over. He knows he lost. But we are going to keep trying. There’s a chance he didn’t lose. I want to pull this off for him,’” Hutchinson said, recounting what Meadows told her about Trump.
In a September 15 deposition, Hutchinson echoed her testimony that she heard about Trump fighting with his security detail on January 6, according to another deposition transcript.
Hutchinson, who faced an onslaught of public criticism and pushback from Trump allies after she revealed the story she was told about Trump supposedly lunging at the driver of his presidential SUV on January 6, 2021, because he was angry that they wouldn’t take him to the US Capitol. During that public hearing, she said she heard the story from Tony Ornato, who was serving as deputy White House chief of staff at the time.
But after her public hearing and the avalanche of pushback, Hutchinson said she had “no doubts” about her previous testimony.
“I have no doubts in the conversation that I had with Mr. Ornato on January 6th. I have no doubts in how I’ve relayed that story privately and publicly” Hutchinson said, according to the transcript, which was released Thursday.
She also shared that Ornato made “sarcastic offhand remarks” to her about the story at least two times after he initially mentioned it – on January 19 and April 16 – according to the transcript.
“I have no doubts about the two instances on January 19th and April 16th about the conversation,” Hutchinson added.
In the April 16 call, Hutchinson described a phone conversation to committee investigators where Ornato made a comment like “it could be worse. The president could have tried to kill – he didn’t say kill – the president could have tried to strangle you on January 6.”
Hutchinson acknowledged that Ornato did not specify he was referring to the incident on January 6 but she said, “I assumed from the context of our phone call and from the conversations that we had had while still at the White House that he was referencing that incident. I have no reason to believe that he was referencing any other incident.”
In June, Hutchinson publicly testified that Ornato told her about an altercation between the former president and the head of his Secret Service detail when he was told he could not go to the Capitol on January 6.
The committee wrote in its report summary, which was released Monday, that they were unable to get Ornato to corroborate Hutchinson’s testimony about the alleged altercation in the presidential SUV.
The committee summary said both Hutchinson and a White House employee testified to the committee about the Ornato conversation. But “Ornato professed that he did not recall either communication, and that he had no knowledge at all about the president’s anger.”
Report: 24-year Washington Commanders employee testified to Congress about alleged financial improprieties
More facts are coming to light regarding the recent reporting as to alleged financial irregularities within the Washington Commanders organization.
According to Daniel Kaplan of TheAthletic.com, an employee who spent 24 years working for the Commanders has testified before the U.S. House Committee on Oversight & Reform and “alleged financial malfeasance.” Jason Friedman gave the secret testimony, which as Kaplan writes “appeared to” spark multiple reports in recent days, including the bombshell contention that the team withheld payments from the ticket revenues that go into a league-wide visiting-team pool.
Kaplan, citing an unnamed source, reports that “Friedman supplied no evidence to back up his claims.” Kaplan also points out that it’s unclear whether Friedman held a position that would have given him access to records or other evidence that would support the claims.
Friedman previously supplied a letter to the Committee corroborating the allegations made by former team employee Tiffani Johnston against Commanders owner Daniel Snyder. His testimony presumably addressed that incident, along with his claims about financial irregularities.
A spokesman for Republican members of the Committee apparently took indirect aim at Friedman with this comment, released in the aftermath of recent reporting: “The leak of one-sided, unconfirmed, unsupported allegations from a disgruntled ex-employee with an ax to grind is just further proof the Democrats’ investigation is a waste of Congress’ time. Nothing the committee has heard from any credible witness points to any financial improprieties; in fact, the only credible witness in a position to know the facts the Democrats have heard from has denied any such improprieties.”
As we see it, there’s no gray area here. Financial improprieties happened, or they didn’t. Friedman’s testimony is a starting point. The ending point is proof to support his claims or proof to debunk his claims (or the absence of proof to support his claims).
And if there’s nothing to any of this, it’s safe to assume that the league or the team will say so, loudly.
The Commanders issued a statement last week, in the aftermath of the initial reporting regarding potential financial improprieties. There has been no specific statement since Saturday’s report from A.J. Perez of FrontOfficeSports.com regarding the allegation that money was withheld from the visiting-team fund.
Given the potential implications of this specific claim, which if true would undoubtedly bring down Snyder, it’s hard to imagine that the league and the team will remain silent.
Ghislaine Maxwell’s lawyers grill ex-Epstein employee who testified about underage girls
NEW YORK, Dec 3 (Reuters) – Ghislaine Maxwell’s defense attorneys on Friday began questioning a former Jeffrey Epstein employee who testified the prior day that he drove two girls who he believed appeared underage to the late financier’s Palm Beach estate.
Juan Alessi, who worked full-time for Epstein from 1991 to 2002, said at Maxwell’s sex abuse trial on Thursday that he saw the two girls spend time with Epstein and Maxwell at the property, where he recalled cleaning sex toys from Epstein’s massage room and storing them in Maxwell’s bathroom.
The British socialite’s attorney Jeffrey Pagliuca began cross-examining Alessi, 71, during the fifth day of testimony in the case. Pagliuca questioned Alessi about his admission to stealing money from Epstein, which Alessi on Thursday called the biggest mistake of his life.
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Maxwell, 59, has pleaded not guilty to eight counts of sex trafficking and other crimes, including two perjury charges that will be tried at a later date.
Prosecutors accuse Maxwell of recruiting and grooming underage girls for Epstein to abuse, and say she participated in some of the encounters.
Her attorneys argue she is being scapegoated for Epstein’s alleged crimes since the globetrotting investor is no longer alive. Epstein killed himself in a Manhattan jail in 2019 at the age of 66 while awaiting trial on sex abuse charges.
Alessi’s account came after testimony earlier this week from one of the girls he said he saw at Epstein’s estate: A woman now in her early 40s testifying under the pseudonym Jane who said Maxwell set her up for abuse by Epstein while she was 14, 15 and 16 in the mid-1990s.
Jane is the first of four Maxwell accusers expected to testify in the trial. Maxwell’s attorneys questioned Jane about discrepancies between her testimony and earlier statements she made during interviews with law enforcement agents, and have said the women’s memories have become distorted over time.
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Reporting by Luc Cohen;
Editing by Sandra Maler and Alistair Bell
Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
Ahmaud Arbery killing trial: Homeowner who called 911 about people at site in months before Arbery’s killing testified he did not ask the McMichaels to help secure his property
Larry English Jr. testified in the September 24 deposition that surveillance footage at his property near Brunswick, Georgia, captured people on the property several times in late 2019 and early 2020, and in some instances he called 911 about the intrusions.
English previously told the court that a serious medical condition prevented him from testifying in person.
English said he had installed cameras around the home that he was able to monitor using an app on his phone. In late October 2019, English made a call to authorities to report an individual on his property, whom he described as “a colored guy, got real curly looking hair,” with tattoos, who was just “pondering around,” and asked for a deputy to go to the property.
He called authorities again when he saw a white couple entering his property on November 17, 2019, telling the dispatcher that “We had … some stuff stolen about a week and a half, two weeks ago there.” English called back a day later, telling authorities that he saw at the construction site the “same guy that was over there about a week and a half, two weeks ago.”
English was asked whether anything was ever taken from his construction site, to which he responded, “Not that I know of.”
Three White men — Gregory McMichael, his son Travis McMichael and William “Roddie” Bryan Jr. — are accused of chasing Arbery, a 25-year-old Black man, in vehicles and killing him in that neighborhood on February 23, 2020.
The defendants are charged with malice and felony murder in connection with the killing. They also face charges of aggravated assault, false imprisonment and criminal attempt to commit false imprisonment. All have pleaded not guilty.
If convicted, each man could face life in prison without the possibility of parole.
Arbery’s family has said he was out for a jog when he was shot and killed. Cell phone video of the episode surfaced more than two months later, sparking widespread public outrage and demonstrations just weeks before the police killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis set off a summer of nationwide protests against racial injustice.
Bryan, who recorded the cell phone video, is accused of hitting Arbery with his truck after he joined the McMichaels in chasing Arbery. According to a transcript read in court Thursday, Bryan told an investigator he “angled” Arbery off the side of a road because he believed Arbery was trying to reach for his truck door, but did not think he hit Arbery.
Owner: I told neighbor he could check my property, but not the McMichaels
Defense attorneys contend their clients were trying to conduct a lawful citizen’s arrest of Arbery, whom they suspected of burglary after they and several neighbors became concerned about people entering English’s under-construction home. The defense contends Travis McMichael shot Arbery in self-defense as Arbery and Travis McMichael wrestled over Travis’ shotgun.
The confrontation came minutes after a neighbor called police to say Arbery was at English’s property that afternoon. Gregory McMichael, investigators testified, said he initiated the pursuit after seeing Arbery speedily run by McMichael’s home, and that he believed Arbery matched the description of someone who’d been recorded at the construction site before.
However, prosecution witnesses have testified that McMichael did not know at the time that Arbery was at the site that day, or whether a man in English’s surveillance videos had ever stolen anything. The prosecution has said surveillance videos do show Arbery at the site multiple times, but always without breaking in and without incident.
In his deposition, English testified that other than police, he only ever gave one person permission to check his property — a man who lives near the site, but is not one of the defendants.
That man had offered to do so, English said, after texting to him that he’d heard about intrusions at the property.
“At any point in time, did you ever authorize the McMichaels to … confront anybody on your site?” prosecutor Paul Camarillo said during the deposition.
“No,” English replied.
Camarillo also asked whether English had given the McMichaels permission to go onto the property, or whether he had told them they couldn’t go on the property. English answered no to both.
He added that he never posted surveillance videos of his site to social media but said he may have shown them to neighborhood resident Matt Albenze.
Albenze testified this week that he called police on the day of Arbery’s killing to say that a man — later identified as Arbery — was at English’s property.
English said he had met Travis McMichael once, and that he had spoken to Gregory McMichael and his wife at least once before the shooting.
Camarillo asked English whether he had told the McMichaels about any incidents at his house.
“Probably. But I’m not sure,” English answered.
Devon M. Sayers reported from Brunswick and Jason Hanna and Alta Spells wrote from Atlanta. CNN’s Pamela Kirkland contributed to this report.
Lauren Salzman, a former high-ranking Nxivm member who testified against Keith Raniere, will not go to prison
Salzman, 45, has spent the past several years in home confinement. She faced about 7 to 9 years in prison for the charges she pleaded guilty to; however, prosecutors told US District Judge Nicholas Garaufis that her cooperation was “extraordinary” and a big part of securing a conviction against Raniere, who was convicted of racketeering, sex trafficking and other charges in 2019 and was sentenced to 120 years in prison.
In contrast, two other co-conspirators who pleaded guilty in the case have been sentenced. Seagram’s heiress Clare Bronfman pleaded guilty to conspiracy to conceal and harbor people who were not in the US legally for financial gain, and to fraudulent use of identification. She was sentenced to more than seven years in federal prison.
Ahead of her sentencing Wednesday, Salzman wrote a letter addressed to the court in which she apologized to victims.
“I wish I could go back. I wish I could take my participation back. I wish I had been stronger and seen things sooner,” Salzman wrote to the court.
In her sentencing memorandum, Salzman’s attorneys wrote that her mother introduced her to Raniere while in college and that she urged her to take six months of Nxivm “Executive Success Programs” classes to help her figure out what she wanted to do with her life. Salzman went from taking classes to teaching them, she wrote in her letter to the court, and in 24 months she went from an entry-level position to a high-level executive.
“I was 23 years old, and I really thought I was helping change the world,” she wrote.
Her mother told the court that introducing her daughter to Nxivm and Raniere is one of the most regrettable things she has done.
“I am responsible for Lauren being before you, having endured arrest, prosecution and successful cooperation, and now facing her own judgment,” wrote Nancy Salzman, who pleaded guilty to one count of racketeering conspiracy and is scheduled to be sentenced September 8.
For about two decades, Lauren Salzman went deeper into the group and her relationship with Raniere, which lasted for 17 years. She testified that she stayed in it because she wanted children and Raniere repeatedly had promised they would have a child together.
“Over time, I have witnessed him gain control in countless others’ lives and exploit them for his own ends,” Lauren Salzman wrote.
Correction: An earlier version of this story incorrectly listed Salzman’s sentence, based on information from the US Attorney’s Office. Salzman has been sentenced to five years of probation and community service.