Tony Ornato, the Secret Service official who disputed that then-President Donald Trump physically lunged at an agent or attempted to grasp the steering wheel of the presidential limousine during a January 6 encounter, is being questioned by two former Trump White House officials.
Ornato, who is now the assistant director of the Secret Service's Office of Training, rose to political prominence this week after a former aide to ex-White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows testified to a Senate committee on Jan. 6 that she had been told about the confrontation by the agent on the day of the attack on Congress.
Secret Service Official Recounts Jan. 6 Capitol Riot Incident
It appears to have erupted in an SUV carrying Trump after the president became outraged by his agents' reluctance to accompany him to the US Capitol, where hundreds of his followers would shortly riot and attack the building.
Cassidy Hutchinson testified before the committee on Tuesday that Ornato recounted the event to her shortly after it occurred. Mr. Trump allegedly sought to grasp the steering wheel of the vehicle and lunged at agent Robert Engel after becoming enraged.
Hutchinson told the committee that Ornato had suggested with a motion that Trump had gone for the agent's neck when relaying the story. However, in the hours following her testimony, a US Secret Service spokeswoman told news outlets that the driver of the car and Engel were prepared to testify to the committee that the president had never physically rushed at them or attempted to take the wheel, Independent reported.
Some have speculated that the goal was to drive Pence away from the Capitol to prevent him from performing his job in certifying the 2020 Electoral College votes, although this notion has yet to be verified.
In 2019, then-President Trump fired the Secret Service head, Randolph "Tex" Alles, in what one unidentified source described as a "near-systematic purge" of the service. Trump subsequently chose James Murray as his replacement, and Murray is still in the position.
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Secret Service Agent Who Fought Trump Was Promoted
Following President Joe Biden's election victory in 2020, it was widely believed that the Secret Service would be changed, and agents who had protected Biden during the Obama administration would be reinstated. Some of the president's friends were allegedly concerned about Secret Service officers' devotion to Trump, Newsweek via MSN.
For the first time, the decorated Secret Service member who reportedly fought Donald Trump in the rear of the Beast during the January 6 melee has been photographed. Throughout Trump's presidency, Special Agent in Charge Robert 'Bobby' Engel was the chief agent on his detail, dedicating his life to protecting and evacuating the president "at whatever cost."
Now, though, the federal law enforcement agency has taken on a much gentler role as the chief of the agency's field office in Tampa, Florida. Former White House assistant Cassidy Hutchinson said before the House Select Committee on Tuesday that Trump yearned for the presidential limo's steering wheel after Engel declined to take him to the US Capitol to join his fans.
Her shocking testimony has set the stage for senators to summon Engel and question him about whether he was compelled to stop the president, who allegedly retaliated by grasping Engel about the neck, as per Daily Mail.
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