• The Jan. 6 committee will hear testimony on Tuesday from Cassidy Hutchinson, a former aide to Mark Meadows.
  • She's supplied crucial information to the panel, and has identified House Republicans who sought pardons.
  • The hearing was unexpectedly announced on Monday. Additional hearings were not expected until July.

The January 6 committee will hear testimony on Tuesday from Cassidy Hutchinson, who served as an aide to former White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows, during a short-notice hearing announced to present newly obtained evidence, according to several reports.

Hutchinson, who was a witness to many of the events and discussions of interest to the panel, has supplied the committee with several important pieces of information. In testimony revealed at the fifth public hearing last week, Hutchinson, 25, named six House Republicans who sought pardons from Trump in the last weeks of his administration. She also told the panel that Trump told Meadows that he agreed with rioters demands to "hang" Vice President Mike Pence. 

The short-notice hearing Tuesday, at which Hutchinson is set to appear, has stoked expectations that the committee may have new revelations about the apparent attempt to disrupt the peaceful transfer of power from Trump to Joe Biden. The hearing was announced only 24 hours before it was scheduled to happen, during the Senate's two week recess. Lawmakers were not supposed to reconvene for another hearing until July.

Excerpts of her testimony were made public as a part of the committee's litigation against Meadows, who sued to block the subpoena for his own testimony, Politico reported. In her previous testimony, Hutchinson said she informed Meadows and Trump's personal attorney Rudy Giuliani that getting alternate electors to cast votes in states President Donald Trump had lost was "legally unsound."

The aide testified in early March that the White House Counsel's Office expressed concerns about casting alternate electoral votes saying, "That's not legal, we're not putting ourselves in that line of fire," and "Don't raise that to Mr. Trump, it's not appropriate, and it's not a legal theory that we want to entertain right now."

Brendan Buck, who served as an aide to former House Speaker Paul Ryan, said on Twitter that Hutchinson attended every meeting with Meadows when he served as a congressman from North Carolina, "no matter how small."

Plans to have Hutchinson testify Tuesday were initially reported by PunchBowl News. The news source says they were told Hutchinson's testimony "meaningfully informs the hearings" set for July. The hearings later this summer will focus on the violence during the Capitol riot on January 6th and the whereabouts of Trump that day. PunchBowl also reported there have been "sincere concerns" regarding the physical safety and security of the former aide due her extended knowledge and willingness to cooperate with the committee.

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