Former White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows allegedly burned documents in the White House fireplace around a dozen times in the final weeks of the Trump administration, a former aide testified in newly released documents.
Former aide Cassidy Hutchinson, who alleged former President Donald Trump lunged for the wheel of a vehicle on the way to the Capitol on Jan. 6, testified May 17 that she saw Meadows throw documents into the fireplace “once or twice a week.” (RELATED: Yet Another Detail From Bombshell J6 Testimony Contested)
“Maybe a dozen, maybe just over a dozen, but this is over a period of December through mid-January too, which is when we started lighting the fireplace,” Hutchinson said in a testimony released Tuesday.
“However, I don’t know if they were the first or original copies of anything,” she continued. “It’s entirely possible that he had put things in his fireplace that he also would have put into a burn bag that there were duplicates of or that there was an electronic copy of.”
She said she never asked Meadows what he was doing.
“But roughly a dozen times I remember seeing him, and it was when we would have the GSA, General Services Administrative staff, come light it first thing in the morning, and then they had logs next to his fireplace and his closet too,” she said. “I recall roughly a dozen times where he would take the — I don’t know the formal name for what it’s called that covers the fireplace — but take that off and throw a few more pieces of paper in with it when he put more logs on the fireplace.”
WASHINGTON, DC – JUNE 28: Cassidy Hutchinson, a top former aide to Trump White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows, testifies during the sixth hearing by the House Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the U.S. Capitol in the Cannon House Office Building on June 28, 2022 in Washington, DC. The bipartisan committee, which has been gathering evidence for almost a year related to the January 6 attack at the U.S. Capitol, is presenting its findings in a series of televised hearings. On January 6, 2021, supporters of former President Donald Trump attacked the U.S. Capitol Building during an attempt to disrupt a congressional vote to confirm the electoral college win for President Joe Biden. (Photo by Brandon Bell/Getty Images)
Hutchinson said she saw Meadows burn documents “between two and four times” after he met with Republican Rep. Scott Perry to make PowerPoints and discuss “election issues,” specifically, former Vice President Mike Pence’s “role on January 6th.”
“I remember one time he — his door was propped open. He put a few things in the fireplace. And there were a few people in the office with him. Mr. Perry was in the office with him, but I don’t remember who else was. Mr. Perry brought a few other people to meet with him,” she said, noting again that she didn’t know if the burned documents were original copies.