(TUE 6/28/22)

(Cassidy Hutchinson, former special assistant to Trump White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows.)

•Rudy Giuliani, Mark Meadows sought presidential pardons.

•Trump complained that the Elipse crowd looked small because magnetometers kept armed MAGA supporters out.

•Giuliani told Cassidy Hutchinson at the White House January 3 of the 1/6 plans.

•White House Counsel Pat Cipollone warned Trump of potential obstruction of justice, defrauding the electoral count if Trump were to proceed to the Capitol.

•Donald J. Trump wanted to ride to the Capitol after his Elipse speech, tried to grab steering wheel, lunged at Bobby Engel, head of his security detail.

Check back for our analysis and commentary late Tuesday.

Surprise Witness: Cassidy Hutchinson

Suddenly, Hearing VI... Pat Cipollone? Ex-Veep Mike Pence? Punchbowl News scooped the surprise witness for Tuesday’s House Select Committee investigating the January 6 insurrection is Cassidy Hutchinson, who last week in video testimony named Republican Congress members who asked then-President Donald J. Trump for blanket pardons over participation in January 6. 

Hutchinson was special assistant to Trump White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows, who has refused to speak to the committee, and had “unique and constant access” to Meadows, Trump and the White House inner circle, “in the time up to, during and after January 6,” Punchbowl News says, while also having direct contact with dozens of Congress members. What’s more, she was in contact with Georgia officials after the November 2020 presidential election over an effort there to overturn the vote from Joe Biden to Donald J. Trump. Hutchinson switched lawyers earlier this month, in a possible explanation for her decision to appear live.

Butterfield VI: Without knowing, or at least naming Hutchinson Monday evening, Nixon White House counsel John Dean on CNN compared the surprise witness with Alexander Butterfield, who in the Watergate Hearings on July 13, 1973, revealed the existence of a White House taping system. 

Special security: CNN also reported Monday night that the 1/6 panel had secured extra security for its surprise witness.

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G7 to NATO … The G7 is wrapping up its annual summit, in Germany Tuesday. President Biden heads from the Bavarian Alps to Madrid for a NATO summit, where the organization will concentrate on China, NPR reports.

Bad news for necktie industry: G7 leaders are being criticized for a “sloppy look” in a group photograph in which Italy’s Mario Draghi, Canada’s Justin Trudeau, France’s Emmanuel Macron, Germany’s Olaf Scholz, President Biden, Britain’s Boris Johnson and Japan’s Fumio Kishida were pictured wearing open-neck shirts with two-piece suits, and no neckties, Britain’s Independent reports.

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Tuesday’s primaries … Colorado, Illinois, New York, Oklahoma and Utah hold statewide primaries June 28, according to Ballotpedia.

--Todd Lassa