Jim Jordan signs off on criminal referral for key Jan. 6 witness against Trump

House Republicans have formally asked for criminal charges against a key witness against President Donald Trump in the congressional Jan. 6 probe.

Rep. Barry Loudermilk (R-GA) made a criminal referral of former White House aide Cassidy Hutchinson to the Department of Justice accusing her of lying to Congress when she testified that Trump was aware of the potential of violence on Jan. 6, 2021, after summoning his supporters to Washington, D.C., and continued riling them up with claims of election fraud, sources told CNN.

"Loudermilk has long attempted to reframe the public perception of the events at the Capitol, including by scrutinizing the House committee that investigated the Capitol riot and found Trump was 'directly responsible' for the riot," CNN reported. "Loudermilk’s referral was co-signed by House Judiciary Chairman Jim Jordan, who chairs the committee under which Loudermilk is running a probe of January 6."

Hutchinson, now 29, was the top aide to former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows at the end of Trump's first presidency, and she testified in summer 2022 before the House select committee created by then-Speaker Nancy Pelosi that she heard from others that Trump, now 79, had attempted to join his followers at the U.S. Capitol riot.

"Hutchinson testified she had heard a secondhand account that Trump was so enraged at his Secret Service detail for blocking him from going to the Capitol on January 6 that he lunged to the front of his presidential limo and tried to turn the wheel," CNN reported. "A Secret Service agent and White House deputy whom Hutchinson said were also aware of the story have said they don’t remember it."

Former special counsel Jack Smith said that his office evaluated Hutchinson's allegations but ultimately did not consider her a strong witness in his case because most of her claims were secondhand and not admissible in court, and he said prosecutors found that her accounts differed from recollections by others.

"Smith’s team also found different witnesses 'seeing it from a different perspective,' Smith told the committee, when asked about a story Hutchinson told of Trump not wanting his supporters to go through a security check for weapons at his January 6 rally on the Ellipse," CNN reported.

The former special counsel did not assess how reliable her testimony was when asked by the House Judiciary Committee.

“I don’t recall reaching any sort of conclusion like that because we were, again, far away from trial,” Smith testified. “We hadn’t made final determinations.”