A federal grand jury on Tuesday rejected an indictment against former White House aide Cassidy Hutchinson after the Trump Justice Department tried to charge her over her stunning testimony on the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riot.

Prosecutors in the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division sought to charge Hutchinson with a crime based on claims she made false statements, according to two people with knowledge of the case. They were granted anonymity to describe normally closed-door proceedings.

Just around 4:30 p.m. on Tuesday, an MS NOW reporter was present in the courtroom as a federal prosecutor reported a grand jury’s “non-concurrence” to a federal magistrate judge in the U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C. A noncurrence means a majority of the grand jurors failed to reach agreement to indict. This was the only “non-concurrence” of the day.

Hutchinson, 29, served as a White House aide in President Donald Trump’s first term to his then-chief of staff Mark Meadows. She made a surprise appearance before the House Jan. 6 committee in June 2022, delivering a stunning description of Trump’s disregard for the violence at the Capitol that day and for his supporters’ threats to Vice President Pence’s life.

Her allegations also included that the president knew that his rally supporters who later marched on the Capitol were armed; that he lunged at a Secret Service agent and tried to take the wheel of the presidential vehicle after the driver refused to take him to the Capitol when the riot was underway; and that he threw his lunch at a White House wall in anger after then-Attorney General Bill Barr told The Associated Press in December 2020 there was no evidence of widespread voter fraud in the November election.

Hutchinson did not witness the alleged confrontation inside the presidential vehicle firsthand, and Secret Service agents subsequently disputed aspects of her account. She testified that she learned about the incident from another White House official.

Her testimony became a central part of the congressional investigation into Trump’s attempts to overturn his 2020 election defeat. Trump began calling the election results into question before Joe Biden was even declared the winner. Despite Trump’s demands that Vice President Mike Pence block the certification of the election results, Congress confirmed Biden the winner just hours after the Jan. 6, 2021, riot.

The Justice Department’s probe into Hutchinson recently intensified when federal prosecutors in the Civil Rights Division began presenting evidence to a grand jury in Washington as they sought to establish whether Hutchinson lied to Congress.

The role of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division is unusual when a case involves allegations of false congressional testimony. Prosecutors had been reportedly considering potential perjury and obstruction-of-justice charges.

The DOJ did not immediately respond to MS NOW’s request for comment.

The attempt to charge Hutchinson is the latest in a series of prosecutions  that Trump’s Justice Department has brought against perceived enemies of the president including New York Attorney General Letitia James and former FBI Director James Comey. Trump has repeatedly attacked Hutchinson’s credibility and accused her of lying about his actions on Jan. 6. Hutchinson has stood by her testimony.

It is rare for grand juries to reject indictments, but the case against Hutchinson  is not the first of the Trump Justice Department’s attempted  prosecutions to fail. Earlier this year, the Justice Department failed to indict the so-called Seditious Six Members of Congress, who published a video urging members of the military to refuse illegal orders. The DOJ also failed several times to re-indict James after her first case was dismissed when the prosecutor who secured that indictment was found to be unlawfully appointed.

In 2023, Hutchinson published a memoir, “Enough,” that detailed her time working in the Trump White House and more about what she saw on Jan. 6, 2021. During the 2024 election, she told MS NOW’s Lawrence O’Donnell that she was voting for Vice President Kamala Harris.

When the GOP retained its majority in Congress in 2024, Republican members turned their focus back to Hutchinson, demanding she hand over documents related to her book deal and her employment after the White House, among other things.

In March, CNN reported that House Republicans were asking the Justice Department to consider bringing criminal charges against Hutchinson, alleging she lied in her testimony before Congress that Trump knew of the potential for violence on Jan. 6 and proceeded to rile up his supporters regardless.

The criminal referral came from Republican Reps. Barry Loudermilk of Georgia and Jim Jordan of Ohio, who have led efforts to challenge the findings of the former House Jan. 6 committee and scrutinize the credibility of its witnesses.

The referral marked another escalation in Republicans’ yearslong effort to discredit Hutchinson.

This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.

Julianne McShane contributed to this story.

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