angry, or furious.[100] In fact, when asked about a reporter's tweet indicating that sources within the Secret Service confirmed that "Trump was furious about not being [able] to go to [the] Capitol with his supporters," the Press Secretary said he "certainly corroborated it" with the reporter because "that's what I had been told, you know, that [the President] was upset, he was agitated, about not being able to go[.]"[101]
In addition to the testimony above, the Committee has reviewed hundreds of thousands of new Secret Service documents, including many demonstrating that the Secret Service had been informed of potential violence at the Capitol before the Ellipse rally on January 6th. (These documents were critical to our understanding of what the Secret Service and White House knew about the threat to the Capitol on January 6th.) The Committee has also more recently conducted additional interviews with Engel and Ornato, and has also interviewed the driver of the Presidential vehicle.
Both Engel and the driver[102] testified that, within 30 seconds of getting into the vehicle, the President asked if he could travel to the Capitol.[103] This again is directly inconsistent with the account of events in Meadows's book. According to Engel, he told the President immediately that the move wasn't happening.[104] The President was unhappy with Engel's response and began "pushing pretty hard to go."[105] The President repeatedly asked why he could not go to the Capitol.[106] Engel replied that the Secret Service "didn't have any people at the Capitol" to provide the President with appropriate security.[107] The President responded angrily, telling Engel and the driver "I'm the President and I'll decide where I get to go."[108] He reassured Engel that "it would essentially be fine and that the people there [meaning the people who were marching from the Ellipse to the Capitol at President Trump's instruction] were [Trump] supporters or something to that effect,"[109] According to the Secret Service agent driving the vehicle, the President was "animated and irritated" about not going to the Capitol.[110]
According to Mr. Engel, he ultimately told the President that they would "assess what our options were and wait until we can get a plan in place before we went down there."[111] We note that the driver's account acknowledged President Trump's anger to a greater degree than either Engel's initial account in Spring 2022, or his more recent account in November 2022. Engel did not characterize the exchange in the vehicle the way Hutchinson described the account she heard from Ornato, and indicated that he did not recall President Trump gesturing toward him.[112] Engel did not recall being present when Ornato gave either Hutchinson or the White House employee with national security responsibilities an accounting of the events.[113] The driver testified that he did not recall seeing what President Trump was doing and did not recall whether there was movement.[114]
