Johnson aide advised against Hutchinson subpoena over concerns about lawmakers’ ‘sexual texts’
An aide to House Speaker Mike Johnson advised Republican colleagues against subpoenaing former White House aide Cassidy Hutchinson as part of their investigation into the Jan. 6, 2021, attack in an effort to prevent the release of sexually explicit texts that lawmakers sent her, according to written correspondence reviewed by The Washington Post and a person familiar with the effort.
The aide intervened last June, citing concerns that a subpoena could expose the texts, according to the correspondence and the person, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to talk candidly about private conversations. Johnson revived the investigation this week as part of an effort by President
Donald Trump and his allies to seek retribution against perceived political enemies, including those who investigated his role in the Capitol attack.
In a meeting following the June conversation, Johnson (R-Louisiana) and senior aides also conveyed to Rep. Barry Loudermilk (R-Georgia) and members of his staff that issuing a subpoena to Hutchinson and asking her to testify under oath would serve as an opportunity for her to retell her story and potentially embarrass the Trump White House, according to two people present for the meeting.
Loudermilk had publicly floated the idea of issuing a subpoena to Hutchinson, who was elevated to national prominence in an explosive 2022 hearing, where she testified that Trump had wanted an armed mob to march to the Capitol on Jan. 6 — and that he wanted to join them.
Before that meeting, a Johnson aide told Loudermilk’s staff that multiple colleagues had raised concerns with the speaker’s office about the potential for public disclosure of “sexual texts from members who were trying to engage in sexual favors” with Hutchinson, according to correspondence produced at the time that detailed the conversation. Separately, a member of Johnson’s staff told Loudermilk aides that Hutchinson could “potentially reveal embarrassing information,” according to an email reviewed by The Post.
In the last Congress, Loudermilk headed a Republican investigation into the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol, which included among its targets the Democratic probe of the attack that finished its work in 2022. Critics have attacked the GOP investigation as part of Trump’s effort to rewrite the history of what happened on Jan. 6 and to seek retribution against those who blamed him for inciting the violence.
Loudermilk has been jockeying to lead a reconstituted version of the investigation this year. On Wednesday, Johnson appointed him to chair a new select subcommittee that would continue the probe.
Loudermilk was considering issuing a subpoena to obtain testimony and electronic communications from Hutchinson because he believed she could provide fresh information, according to two people involved with the probe, about one of the panel’s central targets and a top political foe of Trump’s who had orchestrated Hutchinson’s surprise testimony: former representative Liz Cheney (R-Wyoming).
The Washington Post reviewed documentation reflecting the speaker’s office’s concern ahead of the June meeting between him and Loudermilk that corroborated the person’s account, but has not seen the purported sexually explicit messages nor identified who sent them or whether Hutchinson responded.
In a statement, Hutchinson’s lawyer, Bill Jordan, did not address the existence of texts and said his client has cooperated voluntarily with the investigation. He also criticized the interim report Loudermilk issued in December, which accused Cheney of “secretly communicating with Hutchinson without Hutchinson’s attorney’s knowledge.”
“Ms. Hutchinson has testified truthfully and stands behind every word despite the efforts of men in powerful positions to attack her,” Jordan said.
Neither Johnson’s nor Loudermilk’s offices immediately provided comments. A spokesperson for Cheney also did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Cheney issued a statement in December, calling Loudermilk’s report “defamatory” and a “malicious and cowardly assault on the truth.”
Loudermilk
told CNN in an interview earlier this month that Johnson had agreed that his probe from the previous Congress would be reconstituted this year in a new committee. Johnson’s announcement Wednesday specified that the new investigative subcommittee would now sit within the House Judiciary Committee, which is chaired by Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio). It previously lived under House Administration Committee Chairman Bryan Steil (R-Wisconsin).
Cheney, along with members and some staff on the committee, has since received blanket preemptive pardons from President Joe Biden to shield them from criminal prosecutions by the Trump administration. Hutchinson was not among the pardonees.
Over the course of their investigation, Loudermilk’s team obtained never-before-seen correspondence documenting apparent concerns Cheney had about communicating with Hutchinson without her lawyer. In early 2024, Loudermilk instructed Hutchinson to produce and preserve all records related to Jan. 6, but staff did not call Hutchinson to testify under oath before the committee. Staffers involved with the investigation argued that more could be gleaned from her with the help of the panel’s subpoena power.
It’s not clear if Cheney’s pardon will dampen enthusiasm for the House panel to continue its line of investigation. A growing number of House members and Trump allies are calling for deeper investigations around those who received preemptive pardons from Biden. And Trump himself has indicated that recasting the narrative around the Jan. 6 attack is still front of mind, issuing a blanket pardon Monday evening of virtually all of the defendants convicted for their roles in the riot. He commuted the sentences of the remaining 14, cutting short sentences for nine members of the Oath Keepers and five members of the Proud Boys, both far-right groups.
Loudermilk told reporters on Inauguration Day that Trump himself had asked him to “continue the investigation and continue to expose the truth.”
“I know President Trump is 100 percent behind it,” Loudermilk said.
