Former White House aide Cassidy Hutchinson said the Trump White House was consumed by a sense of paranoia, adding that her former boss Mark Meadows destroyed several documents in the final days of Donald Trump’s presidency.
Hutchinson wrote in her new book that Meadows “burned so many files” in his home’s fireplace that his wife shared her frustration about the high cost of having to dry clean his suits to rid them of the “bonfire” smell, according to The New York Times.
Her memoir “Enough” is set to hit bookstands Tuesday.
Hutchinson is best known for her explosive testimony before the House select committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection. While Trump and his allies have sought to discredit her, Hutchinson has defended her account.
“What would I have to gain by coming forward?” she asked in a new interview with “CBS Sunday Morning.” “It would have been easier for me to continue being complicit and to stay in the comfortable zone.”
During her appearance before the House panel, Hutchinson revealed Meadows had warned “things might get real, real bad on Jan. 6,” and recounted being told that Trump got into a physical altercation after he tried to grab the wheel to turn the presidential motorcade around to join his supporters at the U.S. Capitol on that day, among other things.
Along with her congressional testimony, Hutchinson has answered questions before the Washington, D.C., grand jury probing the former president’s scheme to undermine Joe Biden’s win and the Fulton Country body investigating Trump’s efforts to undo the 2020 election in Georgia. However, it’s not clear whether her testimony contributed to him getting indicted in either case.
Meadows was indicted in the Fulton County case, and his recent effort to get the case moved to federal court failed. He and Trump both pleaded not guilty.
Trump has also been charged for his alleged role in a hush money payment scheme involving adult film actress Stormy Daniels in Manhattan, and over his alleged mishandling of classified documents after leaving the White House.
Hutchinson told CBS while she is still a Republican, she would not support Trump in his 2024 presidential bid.
“I’d like to make clear I would not back the former president of the United States,” she said. “He’s dangerous for the country. He is willing and has shown time and time again willingness to proliferate lies.”
Despite his indictments, Trump remains the favorite to win the GOP primary, according to the latest polls.
In an excerpt of her book released by The Guardian, Hutchinson also alleges being groped by Rudy Giuliani, saying that Trump’s former personal lawyer put his hand under her blazer and then her skirt on Jan. 6, 2021.
Giuliani has denied her account and threatened to sue her over it.