Profiles in courage gratitude to truth for White House staff who witnessed Janauary 6th insurrection

Echo report published in ABCNews by Soo Rin Kim and Quinn Scanion:  

ABC's Jonathan Karl interviews Sarah Matthews, left, Cassidy Hutchinson, center, and Alyssa Farah Griffin, December 15, 2023, in Washington DC.

Three women who served in former President Donald Trump's White House are now warning against a possible second Trump term, with one of them saying it could mean "the end of American democracy as we know it."

January 6 insurrectionist inside the U.S. Capitol

For the first time, former White House Communications Director Alyssa Farah Griffin, former White House deputy press secretary Sarah Matthews, and former White House aide Cassidy Hutchinson sat down together with ABC News "This Week" co-anchor Jonathan Karl to discuss their roles in speaking out against Trump in the wake of January 6.

"Fundamentally, a second Trump term could mean the end of American democracy as we know it, and I don't say that lightly," Griffin, now a co-host of ABC's "The View," told Karl, accusing the former president of having gone to "historic and unconstitutional lengths" in attempting to "steal a democratic election" and to stay in power.

"I'm very concerned about what the term would actually look like," Griffin continued.

"We don't need to speculate what a second Trump term would like because we already saw it play out," Matthews told Karl.

"To this day, Trump still doubles down on the fact that he thinks that the election was stolen and fraudulent," Matthews said, claiming Trump's rhetoric has become "increasingly erratic," citing his threats to skirt the Constitution and suggestions about weaponizing the Justice Department to retaliate against his political enemies.

Hutchinson, who served as a top aide to Trump's last White House chief of staff Mark Meadows – and who stood by Trump the longest after the 2020 election – said there's a large portion of the population that's not recognizing their mistakes, that's not working to continue to better our country."

"This is a fundamental election to continue to safeguard our institutions and our constitutional republic," Hutchinson said. "We're extremely fragile as a country, and so is the democratic experiment."

This was the first time Griffin, Matthews, and Hutchinson, who all cooperated with the House select committee that investigated the Capitol attack by Trump supporters on Jan. 6, 2021, gathered to share their experiences.

Griffin, who had resigned from her White House post on December 4, 2020, sat for a private closed-door interview with the January 6 committee, while Matthews, who resigned on January 6, 2021, and Hutchinson, who left the White House at the end of the Trump presidency, testified publicly at televised hearings in addition to closed-door testimony. Most transcripts of the January 6 committee's closed-door witness interviews were eventually published.

January 6th insurrection aided and abetted by Donald Trump

The bombshell testimony from Hutchinson played a major role in the House January 6, investigation, providing detailed accounts of Trump's frame of mind surrounding the 2020, election he lost as well as the events before, during, and after the January 6 insurrection.

Trump has denied any wrongdoing with regard to January 6.

The Trump campaign responded to ABC's interview with a statement calling the women "ungrateful grifters" who "used the opportunities given to them by President Trump" and had gone "full Judas."

Putting politics aside to choose democracy, they say, "Our singular focus needs to be, if he is the nominee, on making sure that he is not elected the president again next November," said Hutchinson, once a staunch Trump defender who has become a frequent target of attacks by him and his allies since her testimony before the House January 6 committee.

"I've never voted for a Democrat in my life, but I think that in this next election, I would put policy aside and choose democracy," Matthews told Karl, saying she's still hopeful that Trump can be defeated in the Republican primary but that the clock is ticking.

And because the former president has made "retribution" a major theme of his reelection campaign, Hutchinson, Matthews and Griffin, who have already faced harassment from Trump and his followers, say they fear the consequences of his rising to power again.

"What scares me as much as [Trump] and his retribution is the almost cult-like following he has over his most diehard supporters," Griffin said. "The threats, the harassment, the death threats that you get when he targets you -- and he's deliberate in targeting -- is really horrifying and has no place in our American discourse."

"A lot of these people won't come forward even if privately they'll acknowledge that Trump is unfit or will privately acknowledge that the 2020 election wasn't stolen," Matthews added of her fellow Republicans. "It's because they know that they will face death threats, that their families will face death threats."

Hutchinson made a reference to one of Trump's recent most controversial comments: "The fact that he feels that he needs to lean into being a dictator alone shows that he is a weak and feeble man."
That is, they said, even if it means electing a Democrat as president, which is a disappointing and upsetting thought for Matthews, who has long backed Republicans.

During a town hall-style interview with (Fake❗) Fox News host Sean Hannity earlier this month, Trump said he would not be a dictator "except for Day One." Trump has since defended the comment as a joke and said he will not be a dictator but has faced backlash nonetheless as he repeated rhetoric that mirrored the words of past authoritarian leaders.

Griffin noted that former Vice President Pence has "seen more than any of us have seen" while in office, and called on him to come forward more publicly against Trump.

"I would just hope in this moment, when we are less than a year out … that he would think about speaking out more forcefully just about the unfitness of Donald Trump," Griffin said. "This is not about politics. It's not about policy. It is about the character of the man who is the leader of the free world."
Reliving Jan. 6 and the House investigation

Matthews and Hutchinson, who both lived through the Jan. 6 insurrection as White House officials, told Karl how they dealt with their conflicting emotions.

Matthews said she resigned from her post the night of Jan. 6 because she couldn't live with herself knowing she'd have to defend the insurrection.

"I could not walk into the White House gates the next day after Jan. 6, especially as someone who is a spokesperson, because I knew that I would have to defend that and defend what we saw that day and his dereliction of duty," Matthews said. "And I couldn't live with myself. And so that was why I made that decision and then going forward to testify before the January 6 committee."

Hutchinson, who was still loyal to the administration at the time, said she was upset to see Griffin on television the next day being critical of Trump.

"I still felt that sense of loyalty to the administration, and I don't say that with pride," Hutchinson said. "And I had -- that was sort of the beginning when I had this -- these split emotions about how to actually process what happened that day and how to process my own involvement in it and what I could do moving forward."

"I was really upset with Alyssa on one hand, because we were very, very close … And there's also the side of me where I was really proud and somewhat envious of the courage that you displayed," Hutchinson continued.

Matthews and Hutchinson both gave credit to Griffin for connecting them with the GOP Reps. Liz Cheney and Adam Kinzinger, the two GOP members of the January 6 committee, eventually leading to their public televised testimony before the panel.

"It was all secretive," Matthews recalled of her initial meeting with Cheney and Griffin in a "little basement office" on Capitol Hill. "We sat there for probably like, what, four or five hours or something. And I just gave her my best recollection of the events leading up to January 6 and the aftermath of the election."

Hutchinson said she was still on the Mar-a-Lago payroll when she was contacted by Griffin about talking to the January 6 committee.

"I was at this really delicate point in my so-called journey in all of this where I, I really wanted to come forward," Hutchinson said. "But I also had concerns about -- I didn't know if there'd be any lasting implications."

Asked about women's roles in speaking out against Trump following the January 6 insurrection, Griffin emphasized what she called the courage Hutchinson and Matthews -- who are both still in their 20s -- showed in stepping forward.

"For some reason, in moments that call for it, women tend to show an astonishing amount of courage, and I credit these women who are younger than me, had not as senior of titles, and stepped forward," Griffin said.

"I think that there are a lot of people who saw some dangerous things, but they've made the calculation that he very well may be president again," she continued. "They not only don't want to be on his bad side, they also want to preserve themselves for future opportunities with him."

"For me, it fundamentally came down to, I want to be able to look my future kids in the eye and say, when history called for it, I did the right thing and I had the courage to do it," Griffin said. "That matters to me more than any future, you know, job or power structure that might exist if he's president again."

ABC News' Alexandra Hutzler contributed to this report.

Michael Flynn admitted guilt but now the fake AG William Barr says not so fast!

This is the fact: Retired senior army officer Mike Flynn admitted to lying to the FBI. Full stop!

NewYorkTimes headline (echo modified): A former federal judge John Gleeson said that the (bogus!) attorney general William Barr gave special treatment to Flynn, who is presidential ally, thereby undermining public confidence in the rule of law.

ABCNews:  Appointed outside judge in Michael Flynn case blasts the Justice Department for 'gross abuse' of power. Moreover, the judge also argued that Flynn committed perjury by reneging on his guilty plea.

Head table! Seated at the head table of a gala celebrating the tenth anniversary of Russia Today in December of 2015 included Russian President Vladimir Putin and American retired Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn. (NBCNews photo.)

Echo report by Alexander Mallin published in ABCNews.

The ex-judge appointed in former national security adviser Michael Flynn's criminal case ripped into the Justice Department Wednesday in a lengthy filing that accuses Flynn of committing perjury and alleges the DOJ's unusual reversal in the case amounts to a "gross abuse of prosecutorial power."

"The Government has engaged in highly irregular conduct to benefit a political ally of the President," said retired federal judge John Gleeson, who in a controversial move last month was tasked by district judge Emmet Sullivan to present arguments against the department.

"The Department of Justice has a solemn responsibility to prosecute this case—like every other case—without fear or favor and, to quote the Department’s motto, solely 'on behalf of justice,'" Gleeson continued. "It has abdicated that responsibility through a gross abuse of prosecutorial power, attempting to provide special treatment to a favored friend and political ally of the President of the United States. It has treated the case like no other, and in doing so has undermined the public’s confidence in the rule of law."

The Justice Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the filing, but is currently appealing Sullivan's refusal to dismiss the case to the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals, which is considering whether to overrule Sullivan and throw out the case.

In his 73-page argument, Gleeson states his belief that Flynn "has indeed committed perjury in these proceedings, for which he deserves punishment," referring to Flynn's previous sworn statements in court in which he admitted lying to FBI agents who interviewed him at the White House in January 2017.

But Gleeson recommends that the court not move forward with a separate prosecution case against Flynn for committing perjury and instead "take Flynn’s perjury into account in sentencing him on the offense to which he has already admitted guilt."

"This approach—rather than a separate prosecution for perjury or contempt—aligns with the Court’s intent to treat this case, and this Defendant, in the same way it would any other," Gleeson writes.

Gleeson's motion repeatedly excoriates the conduct of the Justice Department over its sudden move to withdraw the charges and specifically its contention that it can no longer prove Flynn "knowingly and willfully made a false statement" in his interview with the FBI.

"Even recognizing that the Government is entitled to deference in assessing the strength of its case, these claims are not credible. Indeed, they are preposterous," Gleeson writes. "For starters—and most unusually—they are directly and decisively disproven by the Government’s own briefs filed just months ago in this very proceeding. They are also plainly inconsistent with prior orders of this Court, which constitute law of the case."

After appointing a U.S. attorney to review the FBI's initial handling of the case, Attorney General William Barr said that newly uncovered evidence detailing the conduct of agents who investigated Flynn led him to conclude their counter-intelligence probe was not legitimate, and that his lies were thus not "material" to any legitimate investigation.

Sullivan has set a schedule up that stretches into mid-July for Flynn's team and Gleeson to present counter arguments to one another, with an in-person argument between the parties currently set for July 16.

He has separately hired outside representation to argue against Flynn's lawyers in their request currently before the D.C. circuit to drop the case.

Charlottesville letters: echoes from the Kansas City Star

Trump's delayed Charlottesville condemnation may be a Band-Aid on a shotgun wound- headline quote ABCNews

Heather Heyer, 32, died as a result of a domestic terrorist attack in Charlottesville, VA on August 13, 2017, a street shrine to her memory.

Kansas City Star: Although the news media tends to mischaracterize people who live in "Red" states and "Blue" states as somehow being homogoneous, what I'm finding is quite the opposite. In fact, the Trump "ilk*" are hearing voices of outrage coming from all states. Here are two letters from "Red State" readers of the Kansas City Star, in my "echo" series.



*I use the somewhat archaic word "ilk", in deference to the conservative pundit Bill Kristol. He feels like this particular "word" is only used by people who should know how to use a more suitable word.  Yet, to me, the word is three neat letters, making it suitable for Twitter, a social media platform used by me and my "ilk". 

Two short letters to the editor, published in the Kansas City Star:  

A new day: "When I learned about the Charlottesville rioting, a quote I recently read in the young adult book 'The Courage Test', by James Preller came to mind: 'America should be a place we continually make anew — every single day — by how we treat each other'.”  Julie Conn, Kansas City

Echo letter number 2:

It was inevitable: "Immediately after the election, I said out loud, 'Let the riots begin'. I was not advocating riots but forecasting the inevitability of unrest given President Donald Trump’s divisive campaign and alt-right ideology.While the White House is mired in disarray and scandal, incapable of working with an equally ineffective Congress, and the president toils to lower his golf handicap on 'working vacations', America is smoldering."

Moreover, writes the author, Hannifan:

"Our 'locked and loaded' president is intent on initiating international crises with Molotov cocktail hyperbole. Domestically, Trump has fostered powder kegs while daring his supporters to light the fuses. Fuse lit, white supremacist Trump supporters with Confederate flags and full battle gear wielded their fists, batons and cars on anti-hate counter protesters in Charlottesville. Not surprisingly, Trump’s response was disgraceful. For those too young to have participated in civil rights and other justice movements of the 1960s, the Trump era again calls for urgent, consistent, peaceful, loud opposition. The women’s and climate marches in Washington, D.C., earlier this year were a start, but it remains to be seen how fervently Americans coalesce to oust Trump, and return values and reason to the White House. I hope it’s before he adds more kindling to the smoldering fire." Mark Hannifan, Leawood