Ever since her appearance before the House January 6th Select Committee, Cassidy Hutchinson has been elevated to celebrity heroine status by Democrats and the leftwing media. Personally, I do not find her all that credible – and I wrote that at the time of her testimony.
Simon & Schuster has just published her book, “Enough.” It is reported that they paid her something in the neighborhood of $1 million for the rights. That is a factor in judging the accuracy of the book. Publishing houses do not pay that kind of money without a negotiation over content – especially salacious content. An author has to provide them with red meat or no deal.
I suspect that may explain why Hutchinson – in thousands of interviews – never previously revealed her accusations of sexual misconduct against former New York Mayor Rudy Guiliani. Outside of a few friends who said they believe her, there is no evidence or contemporary corroboration.
Even her description of the encounter is vague. He put his hand under her blazer, then under her skirt. Is she saying he fondled her or touched her most intimate and sexual body parts? We simply do not know what she specifically alleges he did. It is a typical she said/he said story.
Apparently, Hutchinson never told anyone at the time. She never complained to her boss, Chief-of-Staff Mark Meadows. She certainly never called the police or filed a civil suit – although that could be coming. She obviously never mentioned it to January 6th Committee investigators. Until the book was published … crickets.
We the people will never really know what happened between her and Guiliani. Hutchinson’s accusation is without scintilla evidence. That does not mean she is not telling the truth – but only that belief is merely in the mind of the individual.
Hutchinson says she reluctantly agreed to testify to essentially save democracy. She takes on a kind of Joan of Arc persona. She basks in the glow of her own narrative and the reflective light of an overly friendly media. I say “overly friendly” because they never ask any of the tough questions we expect of journalists – and even those who pretend to be. Instead, they not only leave her every statement go unchallenged. They accept them as gospel truth.
I have always been bothered by Hutchinson’s description with the certainty of an actual witness. In her dramatic testimony of what transpired in the presidential limousine, she relates in the manner of fact that “Trump said …”, Trump grabbed the wheel …”, Trump put his hands round the neck of the driver …”, “Trump was told …”. She witnessed none of that. And her portrayal is not corroborated by anyone in the vehicle at the time or the person who allegedly passed the information to her.
Many of the statements she attributes to Mark Meadows could be office watercooler conversation. “We have to keep Trump out of jail.” Was that a serious goal being implemented in real time? Or was that lighthearted jest – common office banter about the boss.
The claim that Meadow’s clothes smelled of smoke from burning so many documents in his office fireplace seemed more Hollywood than real. As a person who has had a fireplace in most of my homes – and burned a lot of stuff in them, including Christmas trees — I have never had a problem with the smell of smoke on my clothes or even in the room. Fireplaces draw all that up the chimney. Bonfires are more likely to leave a smell on the person – not fireplaces. But as a movie director once said of one of those fact-challenged bioflicks, “Don’t let truth stand in the way of a good story.”
Hutchinson’s testimony has brought her money and fame. That is enough to cast at least a modicum of doubt on her story. Is it the gospel truth as those on the left proclaim or is it a mix of facts, spin and outright prevarication? I suspect it is the latter.
What makes that a reasonable judgment is the fact that Hutchinson’s entire story is without any evidence. It is just her story … period. And that may be why she has never been asked to appear before a grand jury by Special Counsel Jack Smith or Georgia prosecutor Fani Willis.
For all the media adulation, Hutchinson is not a credible witness in a court-of-law in which rules-of-evidence apply. Her story is largely based on hearsay and biased interpretations of conversations. None of that is permissible in a court of law.
Admittedly, I do not KNOW what portions of Hutchenson’s story are factual and what is fanciful … what is information and what is disinformation … what is accurate and what is exaggerated. That story may have gotten Hutchinson a million bucks, but it is not worthy of serious consideration in terms of the big picture. At best it is office gossip – possibly driven by the siren calls of fame and fortune.
I am not saying Hutchinson is a liar, but just that her story has no particular value in judging the events surrounding January 6, 2021. It is irrelevant. It is nothing more than a well-told story.
So, there ‘tis,