Jan. 6 Committee Just Interviewed Secret Service Agent From Trump’s Motorcade Tantrum

Robert Engel, the Secret Service agent who was in the car when former President Donald Trump threw a tantrum when he was told he couldn’t ride to the Capitol with his supporters, was just interviewed by the Jan. 6 committee.

CNN reporting teams have been breaking scoop after scoop on the January 6 investigations in Congress and at the Department of Justice and on the ever-deepening scandal around the Secret Service response to the insurrection. The committee has been intensifying its focus on the latter by hauling in witnesses from the Secret Service.

According to a new report from CNN’s Annie Grayer and Zachary Cohen, Engel was the latest to come in — and for the first time since bombshell witness Cassidy Hutchinson testified over the summer:

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.

…

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.

The agency was the subject of some of the more stunning revelations from the final hearing of the January 6 committee, including that the Secret Service had as much as two weeks advance warning about plans for violence on January 6.

But it was Hutchinson who directly implicated Engel as a witness to the jaw-dropping scene that was described to her by several people:

So once the president had gotten into the vehicle with Bobby, he thought that they were going up to the Capitol. And when Bobby had relayed to him, we’re not, we don’t have the assets to do it, it’s not secure. We’re going back to the West Wing.

The president had a very strong, very angry response to that.

Tony described him as being irate. The president said something to the effect of, “I’m the F-ing president! Take me up to the Capitol now”

To which Bobby responded, “Sir, we have to go back to the West Wing.”

The president reached up towards the front of the vehicle to grab at the steering wheel. Mr. Engels 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 and Mr., when Mr. Ornato had recounted the story to me, he had motioned towards his clavicle.

Watch Hutchinson’s testimony above via CNN.