- A police officer has backed up testimony that Donald Trump fought with his Secret Service detail.
- According to CNN, the officer told the January 6 committee he witnessed a heated exchange.
- The testimony supports former the account shared by former White House aide Cassidy Hutchinson.
A police officer has backed up the bombshell testimony that former President Donald Trump quarreled with his security team after they refused to drive him to the US Capitol on the day of the January 6 insurrection, CNN reported Thursday.
Citing a "source familiar with the matter," CNN reported that the officer, a member of the Metropolitan Police Department, was part of the presidential motorcade and witnessed a "heated exchange" between Trump and Secret Service agents. He shared his account with the congressional committee investigating January 6, according to the outlet.
A spokesperson for the committee did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
In June, former White House staffer Cassidy Hutchinson told the January 6 committee that she had heard about an altercation between Trump and his security entourage after the former president finished speaking at the Ellipse and insisted on following his supporters to the US Capitol.
According to Hutchinson, Tony Ornato, then the White House deputy chief of staff, told her the president had a "very strong, very angry response" to being told that he could not go to the Capitol due to security reasons.
Two Secret Service agents earlier this month told CNN that word of the altercation had circulated widely within the agency.
On Thursday, The Intercept reported that the Secret Service deleted text messages from January 5 and January 6 that could have shed light on the alleged incident.
The messages were erased after the Department of Homeland Security's inspector general had requested electronic communications as part of an oversight investigation. The Secret Service said the messages were lost in a "device-replacement program," according to a letter about the incident obtained by The Intercept.