Jan. 6th Committee Transcripts Show QAnon Discussions Took Place in Trump White House at the Highest Level
STEPHEN ZENNER/AFP via Getty Images
House Jan. 6 committee witness Cassidy Hutchinson recalled discussions of the QAnon conspiracy theory taking place at the highest levels of the Trump White House during her depositions before Congress.
On Tuesday, the committee released more transcripts of testimony collected during their investigation into the attack on the U.S. Capitol, including two more transcripts of Hutchinson — who served as a top aide to then White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows.
CNN reported that, according to the transcripts, “In her June interview – the fourth she had conducted with the panel – Hutchinson described a discussion about QAnon during a December 2020 meeting with Meadows, then-President Trump and Republican members of Congress, including Georgia GOP Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene.”
“I remember Marjorie Taylor Greene bringing QAnon up several times, though, in the presence of the president, privately with Mark,” Hutchinson testified. “I remember Mark having a few conversations, too, about – more specific to QAnon stuff and more about the idea that they had with the election and, you know, not as much pertaining to the planning of the January 6th rally.”
During her May interview, Hutchinson also recalled Rep. Greene (R-GA) mentioning QAnon while Trump was holding a rally in Georgia on Jan. 4th, 2021.
“Ms. Greene came up and began talking to us about QAnon and QAnon going to the rally, and she had a lot of constituents that are QAnon, and they’ll all be there,” Hutchinson said. “And she was showing him pictures of them traveling up to Washington, D.C., for the rally on the 6th.”
QAnon refers to the far-right pro-Trump conspiracy theory and political movement that claims Trump is fighting a secret cabal of “deep state” child sex traffickers.
“And at one point I had sarcastically said, ‘Oh, is this from your QAnon friends, Peter?’ Because Peter would talk to me frequently about his QAnon friends,” Hutchinson testified, referring to former Trump trade official Peter Navarro – who is involved in plots to overturn the 2020 election.
“He said, ‘Have you looked into it yet, Cass? I think they point out a lot of good ideas. You really need to read this. Make sure the chief sees it,’” she says in the transcripts.
According to the transcripts, Rep. Liz Cheney (R-WY) then asks Hutchinson if she thought Navarro was being sarcastic referencing his “QAnon friends.”
“I did not take it as sarcasm,” Hutchinson said. “Throughout my tenure working for the chief of staff, he would frequently bring in memos and PowerPoints on various policy proposals that – he would then expand on, you know, ‘Q is saying this.’”
Notably, since leaving office, Trump has publicly promoted the QAnon conspiracy theory on his Truth Social.
