一名前白宫助手在众议院调查小组面前令人震惊的证词国会大厦袭击表明美国特勤局可能事先得到了国会大厦可能发生暴力的警告，这就对该机构在1月6日暴乱之前的计划和特工采取的行动提出了新的问题。
时任白宫办公厅主任马克·梅多斯的高级副手卡西迪·哈钦森周二告诉立法者，保护时任总统的安全团队唐纳德·特朗普白宫高级官员意识到，1月6日，当特朗普计划在一次集会上发表讲话，支持他对2020年总统大选被窃取的毫无根据的指控时，一些人对华盛顿特区的袭击构成了严重威胁。
在哈钦森的讲述中，这个以保镖、神枪手和技术高超的司机团队闻名的机构意识到，前往华盛顿的人群中有一些人计划携带各种武器和军事装备，并试图以国会议员为目标，破坏国会大厦。
如果是这样的话，特勤局显然未能有效地与执法伙伴、公众或国会领导人协调以加强安全态势，而是将一些受其保护的人运送到国会大厦，除了他们的个人安全细节之外没有什么。
特勤局拒绝回答美国广播公司新闻的问题。
如果是真的，国家电视台在一次委员会会议据前国土安全部高级官员、现为美国广播公司新闻撰稿人的约翰·科恩(John Cohen)称，周二可能是迄今为止最明显的证据，表明负责保护关键政治人物及其家人的特勤局在处理特朗普的集会以及1月6日众议院和参议院会议时，未能履行最基本的职责。
科恩援引哈钦森的另一项指控说:“看来，白宫高级官员不仅知道向美国国会大厦进军的计划，而且似乎正在计划让总统加入进来。”。“这份证词提出了非常令人不安的问题，即特勤局对这一事件了解多少，以及为什么没有做更多的准备。”
众所周知，特勤局对他们的工作和工作方式守口如瓶。在26岁的哈奇森声称令人震惊的新细节关于总统在1月6日与他的安全特工的互动，以及他们如何如此担心国会大厦可能发生的暴力事件，以至于拒绝了特朗普开车送他去那里的指令。
“总统说了一些话，大意是，‘我是该死的总统，现在带我去国会大厦’——鲍比[特朗普的安保负责人恩格尔]回应说，‘先生，我们必须回到白宫西翼，’”哈钦森作证说，她是被时任白宫负责行动的副参谋长的特勤局高级官员托尼·奥尔纳托(Tony Ornato)告知的。
特朗普，回应哈钦森的证词她说，“我几乎不知道这个人是谁，卡西迪·哈钦森，除了我听到过关于她的非常负面的事情(一个彻头彻尾的骗子和泄密者)。”
哈钦森还作证说，在1月6日之前的几天里，梅多斯一度说，“事情可能会在1月6日变得非常非常糟糕。”
哈钦森说，在特朗普计划在白宫南面的椭圆广场发表演讲的那天早上，特朗普意识到有携带武器的人试图参加他的集会，其中许多人拒绝通过安全检查站，因为他们需要交出武器。哈钦森作证说，特朗普对这些要求抑制了人群的规模感到沮丧，他建议拆除金属探测器。
科恩说，尽管他对这些事态发展感到担忧，但他最担心的是哈钦森的证词中描绘的特勤局可能失败的画面，自9/11恐怖袭击后DHS并入特勤局以来，科恩一直与该机构密切合作。
哈钦森的证词对特勤局1月6日的安全计划提出了严重的质疑。这需要回答，”科恩说。“服务领导提前通知国会大厦的计划游行了吗?他们事先知道总统打算加入人群吗?”
哈钦森说，被她描述为“白宫工作人员和美国特勤局之间安全协议的渠道”的奥尔纳托知道前几天计划在1月6日可能发生的暴力事件，并在1月6日早上提醒了梅多斯和特朗普。
尽管这一信息据称在白宫高级工作人员中传播，但特勤局至少运送了三名受保护者前往国会大厦——副总统迈克·彭斯、第二夫人卡伦·彭斯和即将上任的副总统卡玛拉·哈里斯，后者仍是加利福尼亚州的参议员——而没有用额外的特工补充他们的细节，也没有与其他机构协调以加强保护。
Ornato是特勤局的一名长期雇员，目前担任该局培训部门的高级官员。1月6日的委员会表示有兴趣采访他，特勤局表示他可以宣誓作证，但没有提供进一步的细节。
执法官员广泛地将1月6日定性为情报失误，声称华盛顿的无数执法机构没有完全掌握威胁形势——尽管集会前几周社交媒体上出现了警告。
特勤局官员还表示，地方官员没有要求DHS为1月6日的国会会议建立一个特别的国家安全指定，所以他们的手被束缚了——尽管科恩说，DHS和特勤局不必等待地方官员伸出手来，如果他们意识到积极的威胁。
科恩说，哈钦森的证词表明，特勤局要么提前警告了威胁，但未能通知其他人并制定适当的应对计划，要么他们被白宫官员误导了，这些官员对潜在的暴力有着更清晰的认识，但忽视了向适当的机构发出警报。
科恩说:“这些安全漏洞可能不是无能的结果，而是由于白宫高级官员采取的故意行动。”“如果这些信息没有提供给特勤局，或者如果提供了，但特勤局未能扩大安全行动，那将非常令人不安。”
前高级特勤局特工唐·米哈莱克(Don Mihalek)现在是美国广播公司新闻的撰稿人，他说，白宫高级工作人员和保护人员之间关于可能威胁的“信息相互作用”经常发生，但如果高级官员未能听从警告或与他们合作，特工们在如何实施计划方面受到限制。
米哈莱克说，他认为，当抗议者在国会大厦游行时，机构之间的沟通中断阻碍了特勤局的计划和反应。他为特工允许彭斯、他的妻子和哈里斯自由前往国会大厦的决定辩护，尽管可能事先知道风险。
“没有人有水晶球，”米哈莱克说。“威胁环境总是存在的，特勤局的工作是尽可能地减轻威胁——除了引用可信和具体的威胁，他们没有权力推翻受保护者的行动。”
在她出现在国会山之后，哈钦森面临着特朗普同事和支持者的大量批评，他们质疑她的可信度。共和党众议员利兹·切尼在一次独家采访中告诉“本周”的联合主持人乔纳森·卡尔，她已经完全的信任和信心用哈钦森的话说。
“我对她的证词绝对有信心，”切尼在一次广泛的采访中告诉卡尔，这次采访将于本周日在美国广播公司的“乔治·斯特凡诺普洛斯本周”节目中全面播出。“委员会不会去袖手旁观，看着她的人格被匿名人士和声称拥有行政特权的人暗杀。”
Hutchinson's testimony raises fresh questions about Secret Service's handling of Jan. 6
A former White House aide's stunning testimony before the House panel investigating theCapitol attackindicated that the U.S. Secret Service may have had advanced warning of the potential for violence at the Capitol, raising new questions about the agency's planning ahead of the riot and actions taken by agents on Jan. 6.
Cassidy Hutchinson, a top deputy to then-White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows, told lawmakers on Tuesday that the security team guarding then-PresidentDonald Trumpand senior White House officials were aware there was a serious threat posed by some descending on Washington, D.C., on Jan. 6, when Trump was planning to address a rally to support his baseless accusations that the 2020 presidential election was stolen from him.
In Hutchinson's telling, the agency famous for its teams of bodyguards, sharpshooters and hyper-skilled drivers was aware that among the throngs headed to Washington were some who were planning to carry a variety of weapons and military gear, and were seeking to target members of Congress and breach the Capitol building.
If so, the Secret Service apparently failed to coordinate effectively with law enforcement partners, the public, or congressional leaders to strengthen the security posture -- and instead ferried a number of people under their protection to the Capitol complex with little more than their personal security details.
The Secret Service declined to answer questions from ABC News.
If true, the lapse in security -- laid out on national television during acommittee sessionTuesday -- represents perhaps the most glaring evidence to date that the Secret Service, responsible for guarding key political figures and their families, failed at its most basic responsibilities in how it dealt with Trump's rally and the meetings of the House and Senate on Jan. 6, according to John Cohen, a former ranking Department of Homeland Security official who is now an ABC News contributor.
"It appears that senior officials at the White House were not only aware of plans to march on the U.S. Capitol, but also appeared to be planning for the president to join," Cohen said, citing another of Hutchinson's allegations. "This testimony raises highly disconcerting questions about what the Secret Service knew about this event and why more wasn't done to prepare."
Notoriously tight-lipped about their job and how they do it, the Secret Service is under renewed focus this week after Hutchison, 26, allegedshocking new detailsabout the president's interactions with his security agents on Jan. 6 and how they were so concerned about possible violence at the Capitol that they refused Trump's directive to drive him there.
"The president said something to the effect of, 'I'm the effing president, take me up to the Capitol now' -- to which Bobby [Engel, the head of Trump's security detail], responded, 'Sir, we have to go back to the West Wing,'" Hutchinson testified she was told by Tony Ornato, a senior Secret Service official who was at the time White House deputy chief of staff for operations.
Trump,responding to Hutchinson's testimony, said, "I hardly know who this person, Cassidy Hutchinson, is, other than I heard very negative things about her (a total phony and 'leaker')."
Hutchinson also testified that in the days leading up to Jan. 6, Meadows at one point said, "Things might get real, real bad on Jan. 6."
And on the morning of Trump's planned speech at the Ellipse, just south of the White House grounds, Hutchinson said, Trump was made aware of individuals with weapons seeking to attend his rally and that many of them declined to pass through security checkpoints because they would have needed to surrender their weapons. Frustrated that those requirements were suppressing the size of the crowd, Trump suggested that the metal detectors be removed, Hutchinson testified.
Cohen said that, as concerned as he was about those developments, he was most troubled by the picture Hutchinson's testimony painted of possible failures on the part of the Secret Service, an agency Cohen has worked closely with since it was folded in to DHS after the 9/11 terror attacks.
"Hutchinson's testimony raises serious questions regarding security planning by the Secret Service on Jan 6. that will need to be answered," Cohen said. "Did the Service leadership have advanced notice of the planned march on the Capitol? Did they have advanced notice of the president's intent to join the crowd?"
Hutchinson said that Ornato, whom she described as "the conduit for security protocol between White House staff and the United States Secret Service," was aware of possible violence planned for Jan. 6 in the preceding days -- and alerted Meadows and Trump on the morning of Jan. 6.
Even with this information allegedly circulating among senior White House staff, the Secret Service ferried at least three of its protectees to travel to the Capitol -- Vice President Mike Pence, Second Lady Karen Pence, and incoming Vice President Kamala Harris, who was still a senator from California -- without supplementing their details with additional agents or coordinating with other agencies to shore up protection.
Ornato, a longtime Secret Service employee, currently serves as a senior official in the agency's training branch. The Jan. 6 committee has expressed interest in interviewing him, and the Secret Service has said he is available to testify under oath, but did not provide further details.
Law enforcement officials have broadly characterized Jan. 6 as an intelligence failure, claiming that Washington's myriad of law enforcement agencies did not fully grasp the threat landscape -- despite warnings that appeared on social media in the weeks leading up the rally.
Secret Service officials have also said that local officials did not ask DHS to establish a special national security designation for the Jan. 6 sessions of Congress, so their hands were tied -- though Cohen said DHS and the Secret Service don't have to wait for local officials to reach out if they are aware of active threats.
Hutchinson's testimony indicated that the Secret Service either had advanced warning of the threats and failed to notify others and formulate an appropriate response plan -- or they were misled by White House officials who had a clearer understanding of the potential for violence and neglected to alert the appropriate agencies, Cohen said.
"These security lapses may not have been a result of incompetence, but instead due to deliberate actions taken by senior White House officials," Cohen said. "If this information was not provided to the Secret Service, or if it was and the Secret Service failed to expand security operations, that would be highly disconcerting."
Don Mihalek, a former senior Secret Service agent who is now an ABC News contributor, said the "interplay of information" among senior White House staff and protective agents about possible threats happens regularly -- but that agents are limited in how they can implement plans if senior officials fail to heed warnings or cooperate with them.
Mihalek said he believes the breakdown in communication between agencies handicapped the Secret Service's planning and response as protesters marched on the Capitol building. He defended agents' decision to allow Pence, his wife, and Harris travel freely to the Capitol, despite possibly knowing the risk in advance.
"Nobody has a crystal ball," Mihalek said. "There's always a threat environment, and the Secret Service's job is to mitigate threats as much as possible -- and they don't have the authority to override a protectee's movement, outside of citing a credible and specific threat."
In the wake of her appearance on Capitol Hill, Hutchinson has faced a deluge of criticism from Trump associates and supporters who have questioned her credibility. Republican Rep. Liz Cheney told "This Week" co-anchor Jonathan Karl in an exclusive interview that she hasfull faith and confidencein Hutchinson's word.
"I am absolutely confident in her testimony," Cheney told Karl in a wide-ranging interview set to air in full on ABC's "This Week with George Stephanopoulos" this Sunday. "The Committee is not going to stand by and watch her character be assassinated by anonymous sources, and by men who are claiming executive privilege."
