Testimony Fleshes Out Account of Trump’s Demand to Go to Capitol on Jan. 6

President Donald J. Trump had simply delivered his fiery speech on the Ellipse early on the afternoon of Jan. 6, 2021, setting in movement the assault by his supporters on the Capitol.

When he acquired into his armored automobile after the speech, Mr. Trump instantly introduced up a subject he typically broached after his public appearances: How large was the group?

However inside 30 seconds, his dialog along with his lead Secret Service agent took a extra contentious flip, in line with a transcript launched on Monday of an interview by Home investigators of one other Secret Service agent who was driving the automotive. Mr. Trump wished to go to the Capitol, however his lead agent, Robert Engel, stated no, telling him there was no plan in place.

“The president was insistent on going to the Capitol,” recounted the motive force, whose title was not disclosed. “It was clear to me he wanted to go to the Capitol. He was not screaming at Mr. Engel. He was not screaming at me. Certainly his voice was raised, but it did not seem to me that he was irate — certainly not, certainly didn’t seem as irritated or agitated as he had on the way to the Ellipse.”

However, the motive force stated, Mr. Trump by no means lunged for the steering wheel or bodily accosted the brokers, contradicting the most sensational and hotly disputed elements of testimony given to the Home Jan. 6 committee by a White Home aide. The transcript of the motive force is the primary intensive eyewitness account of what occurred within the armored automobile to be made public.

“I did not see him reach,” the Secret Service driver instructed investigators for the Home panel. “He never grabbed the steering wheel. I didn’t see him, you know, lunge to try to get into the front seat at all. You know, what stood out was the irritation in his voice, more than his physical presence.”

The driving force’s transcript provides element to one of the vital scrutinized episodes of Jan. 6, 2021. The transcript was by no means launched publicly by the Home Jan. 6 committee, which entered into an settlement with the Secret Service concerning 12 interviews to keep away from disclosing “privacy information, for-official-use-only information, intelligence and law enforcement sensitive records and raw intelligence information.”

Republicans have instructed that the panel didn’t launch the transcript as a result of it contradicts parts of a public account of the incident from a outstanding witness, Cassidy Hutchinson, who served as an aide to Mark Meadows, the White Home chief of employees on the time. Ms. Hutchinson testified in June 2022 that she had heard about what occurred from others second- or thirdhand. Republicans have faulted the panel’s resolution to advertise her account of Mr. Trump’s habits within the automobile.

A letter from Jonathan E. Meyer, the final counsel for the Division of Homeland Safety, supplied a motive that the motive force’s transcript had not been launched. The Home committee requested that the division overview the transcripts for delicate info that needs to be protected against disclosure in order that the rest may develop into “part of the historical record.”

Greater than a yr after the motive force was interviewed in November 2022, the company was nonetheless reviewing the transcripts, Mr. Meyer wrote to Home Republicans in February. He stated the company decided it may launch redacted variations of six interviews, together with the motive force’s, to Republicans who’re investigating the committee’s work whereas searching for irregularities or indicators of bias.

The Republicans launched a duplicate of their report into the committee’s work on Monday afternoon, pillorying the Division of Homeland Safety for taking so lengthy to launch sure transcripts and criticizing situations during which Ms. Hutchinson modified or corrected her testimony.

“This firsthand testimony directly contradicts Cassidy Hutchinson’s story and the former J6 select committee’s narrative,” stated Consultant Barry Loudermilk, the Georgia Republican who has been main the Home G.O.P. effort to research the work of the Jan. 6 committee for bias. “Although the select committee had this critical information, they still promoted Ms. Hutchinson’s thirdhand version of events in their final report.”

Former aides to the choose committee counter that the panel’s remaining report included details of interviews with the driver and that there was no cover-up. The ultimate report additionally makes reference to the testimony of Mr. Engel, regardless that neither transcript was launched on the time.

“Engel did not characterize the exchange in the vehicle the way Hutchinson described the account she heard from Ornato, and indicated that he did not recall President Trump gesturing toward him,” the Jan. 6 committee’s report said, referring to Anthony M. Ornato, the White Home deputy chief of employees and an energetic Secret Service agent whom Ms. Hutchinson cited as one supply of the story she relayed.

The panel’s report added, “The driver testified that he did not recall seeing what President Trump was doing and did not recall whether there was movement.”

“It is difficult to fully reconcile the accounts of several of the witnesses who provided information with what we heard from Engel and Ornato,” the report concluded. “But the principal factual point here is clear and undisputed: President Trump specifically and repeatedly requested to be taken to the Capitol. He was insistent and angry, and continued to push to travel to the Capitol even after returning to the White House.”

The driving force’s transcript is probably the most detailed firsthand account thus far of how Mr. Trump behaved inside his presidential motorcade that day, touring the quick distance from the White Home to the Ellipse.

Mr. Trump had already begun the morning in a “pretty agitated, pretty irritated” temper on his approach to the Ellipse, the motive force testified. The president’s voice contained a “tinge of anger” as he spoke with Mr. Engel, who rode with him within the automobile.

The driving force stated Mr. Trump was offended at Vice President Mike Pence, who had been resisting Mr. Trump’s efforts to dam congressional certification that day of Joseph R. Biden Jr.’s Electoral School victory.

“I don’t remember exactly how he phrased it, but my recollection is that he was upset that the vice president was unwilling to not certify the Electoral College,” the motive force testified.

After the speech, during which Mr. Trump repeated his baseless claims of election fraud, assailed Mr. Pence and fired up the crowd of his supporters, he acquired again within the armored S.U.V. and began demanding to go to the Capitol together with the group to protest the congressional certification.

“Probably within 30 seconds or so, if not less than that of getting in the car, after asking about crowd sizes,” the motive force testified. He added that crowd sizes had been a continuing supply of curiosity for Mr. Trump: “That was pretty typical of that president.”

Mr. Trump, he stated, appeared unconvinced that an unplanned journey posed a safety menace, provided that the group on the Capitol could be his supporters.

“I don’t remember exactly what prompted it or how that portion of the conversation kind of grew organically, but he was pushing pretty hard to go,” the agent testified. He added, “The thing that sticks out most was he kept asking why we couldn’t go, why we couldn’t go, and that he wasn’t concerned about the people that were there or referenced them being Trump people or Trump supporters.”

Sooner or later in the course of the journey to the Ellipse or on the way in which again, the motive force testified, Mr. Trump and Mr. Engel mentioned why folks within the crowd had been being stored again from the speech web site, with Mr. Engel telling the president that that they had “prohibited items of some sort.”

Mr. Trump’s habits within the motorcade was highlighted in Ms. Hutchinson’s blockbuster testimony. She stated she had been instructed by Mr. Ornato that Mr. Trump tried to seize the wheel of his automobile when he was instructed he couldn’t go to the Capitol to hitch his supporters, a few of whom he had been instructed had been armed. Ms. Hutchinson additionally stated Mr. Ornato instructed her the president “lunged” at Mr. Engel.

Secret Service officers have long disputed portions of that account. Company officers have stated Mr. Engel, Mr. Ornato and the motive force of the Suburban may affirm that Mr. Trump demanded his brokers take him to the Capitol, even after they emphasised that it was too harmful for him to go.

Nonetheless, the motive force stated he had not anticipated violence on the Capitol and was bowled over by what he noticed.

“What happened at the Capitol was mind-bogglingly bad and appalling,” he stated. “At that point, it was clear what was happening in the city and at the Capitol, and it was just — defies expectation in a civilized society.”