Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) is denying any involvement in a Republican-led committee’s decision not to subpoena Cassidy Hutchinson, after The Washington Post reported Thursday that one of his aides urged the panel against doing so out of fear of surfacing lewd texts GOP lawmakers allegedly sent to the former White House staffer.
The Washington Post, citing written correspondence and a person familiar with the effort, reported that a Johnson aide in June advised members involved with the investigation against subpoenaing Hutchinson — the star witness in the Jan. 6 select committee’s investigation — to prevent the publication of sexually explicit texts members of Congress had sent her.
The story did not name the Speaker’s staffer nor the lawmakers who allegedly sent the salacious messages.
The report also said that after the June conversation, the Speaker and his senior staffers told Rep. Barry Loudermilk (R-Ga.) and his aides that Hutchinson’s testimony could end up embarrassing President Trump. The outlet cited two people present for the meeting.
Loudermilk at the time was leading a GOP investigation into the now-disbanded Jan. 6 committee.
Johnson, however, is denying any involvement, contending that Loudermilk ultimately did not subpoena Hutchinson because the ex-aide was already cooperating with the committee.
“I had nothing to do with that, the decision not to issue a subpoena to Cassidy Hutchinson was made by the chairman of that committee, and that’s Barry Loudermilk,” Johnson said. “He and I just spoke about it, there was no reason to issue a subpoena because Cassidy Hutchinson was volunteering to participate and come, presumably because she wanted to try to sell more books. It didn’t make sense to give her any more attention, she had already testified, and it was a bit of a debacle. So that decision was made.”
“There’s all these allegations that somebody on my staff was — communicated with somebody else on staff,” he added. “I’m not privy to all my staff’s conversations, but that didn’t have anything to do with me, so it’s much ado about nothing.”
In a separate conversation with reporters, he called the story “wildly inaccurate.”
Loudermilk, similarly, told reporters that his committee decided against issuing Hutchinson a subpoena because she was cooperating with the panel.
“I didn’t receive any direct communications,” Loudermilk said. “As I’ve said in the past, we didn’t see a need to subpoena because her attorneys were cooperating with us.”
Loudermilk noted that he met with members of the Speaker’s office about subpoenas because the committee did not have subpoena power, but he said he did not recall anyone telling him not to issue a subpoena.
“We had numerous meetings since I reported directly to the Speaker’s office in the investigation because I didn’t have subpoena power of potential subpoenas going forward. So I don’t recall any specific, anyone saying do not subpoena,” Loudermilk said. “I mean, there were times that we laid out, hey, here’s a list of people we may subpoena or could. But as you guys know, the threat of subpoena is always more powerful than an actual subpoena.”
The congressman also said he was not aware of any members sending sexually explicit messages to Hutchinson.
Hutchinson’s attorney did not confirm that she had received any lewd texts but faulted Loudermilk for his handling of his investigation into the disbanded Jan. 6 panel.
“Congressman Loudermilk requested information and documents from Ms. Hutchinson during his investigation, and Ms. Hutchinson cooperated and responded to those requests voluntarily without a subpoena,” attorney Bill Jordan said in a statement.
“He then issued a misleading, factually baseless report impugning Ms. Hutchinson in a politically motivated attempt to rewrite history. Ms. Hutchinson has testified truthfully and stands behind every word despite the efforts of men in powerful positions to attack her.”
Loudermilk’s most recent report in December focused primarily on former Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.).
Cheney said at the time Loudermilk’s report “intentionally disregards the truth and the Select Committee’s tremendous weight of evidence, and instead fabricates lies and defamatory allegations in an attempt to cover up what Donald Trump did.”
But Loudermilk’s report also criticized Hutchinson’s appearance before the Jan. 6 committee, seeking to discredit some of her bombshell testimony.
That includes her relaying a story she heard from someone else about Trump lunging at the driver of his car in an attempt to go to the Capitol.
Loudermilk has since been tapped to lead another subcommittee to review Jan. 6, this time a select subcommittee within the Judiciary Committee.
According to the Georgia lawmaker, this second review from the GOP will focus primarily on security failures.
“The security of the Capitol is one of our primary focuses. We’re going to be looking more deeply into intelligence that may or may not have been gathered by the different agencies. What did they do with them? Did they brief the White House on any of this? Did they brief the U.S. Capitol Police?” he said.
“So there’s a lot of holes we need to fill.”
Emily Brooks contributed.
