CNN
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The House select committee investigating the January 6, 2021, insurrection, is interviewing Robert Engel, the lead agent in former President Donald Trump’s motorcade on the day of the US Capitol attack, two sources tell CNN.
Former White House staffer Cassidy Hutchinson testified publicly at a hearing in June that then-deputy White House chief of staff Tony Ornato told her that Trump got so angry when he was told he could not go to the Capitol on January 6 after his speech that morning that he reached up toward the front of the vehicle to grab at the steering wheel with one hand and lunged at Engel with the other.
“The president reached up towards the front of the vehicle to grab at the steering wheel. Mr. Engel grabbed his arm, said ‘Sir; you need to take your hand off the steering wheel. We’re going back to the West Wing. We’re not going to the Capitol.’ Mr. Trump then used his free hand to lunge towards Bobby Engel,” Hutchinson testified.
Hutchinson said that Ornato told her this story of Trump being “irate” back at his White House office later that day with Engel present. She said Engel “did not correct or disagree with any part of the story.”
Both Ornato, who briefly left the agency to serve as Trump’s deputy chief of staff, and Engel met with the committee prior to Hutchinson’s testimony, but Thursday’s interview is the first time Engel has met with the panel since then.
The committee declined to comment.
Source : CNN
