The House subcommittee investigating former Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s (D-CA) partisan January 6 Special Committee “interviewed hundreds of witnesses,” but testimony from the most notorious star of Pelosi’s hearings is conspicuously absent from its report.
The subcommittee, chaired by Rep. Barry Loudermilk (R-GA), issued an interim report December 17, 2024, calling former White House employee Cassidy Hutchison the Pelosi “Select Committee’s star witness.”
But despite the subcommittee “interview[ing] hundreds of witnesses,” the committee’s report makes no reference to bringing in Hutchinson for questioning – despite mentioning her by name 268 times.
According to a source, Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) personally intervened to block the subcommittee from issuing a subpoena to Hutchinson. Johnson, in a statement to Breitbart News, called that claim “clearly false.”
Breitbart asked the subcommittee and Loudermilk’s personal office why the subcommittee did not question Hutchinson despite her prominence throughout the report and the subcommittee’s otherwise thorough, exhaustive work. Breitbart also asked about any alleged interference from Johnson in the subcommittee’s work, particularly if Johnson interfered in any efforts to subpoena Hutchinson.
The subcommittee and Loudermilk’s office did not respond.
Johnson’s full statement to Breitbart, in which he denies blocking the subpoena, also broke the news that he will be continuing the subcommittee’s work into the next Congress, but that it will be “elevated” to the full committee level.
Johnson’s statement regarding Breitbart’s source’s claim reads in full:
This is clearly false. I have never blocked any subpoena and don’t even have the authority to do so. As Speaker, I have pressed for full transparency regarding the events of January 6 and the Democrats’ sham J6 Committee. I directed our House Oversight subcommittee to release the J6 video footage for the American people to see, and I allocated almost two million additional dollars to hire additional staff to conduct the crucial investigative work.
We are proud of the subcommittee’s important work in exposing the false narratives and lies peddled by the Democrats’ J6 committee. But there is much work still to be done, so I am elevating the investigation from the subcommittee level to the full committee level — thereby giving it full subpoena authority. We look forward to House Republicans continuing this investigation and working with the incoming Trump Administration, including Attorney General Pam Bondi, to fully expose the phony and politically-motivated J6 Committee.
The statement does not make clear what role Loudermilk will play after the investigation is elevated out of the Oversight Subcommittee. Breitbart shared Johnson’s statement via email with a spokesperson for the subcommittee and asked for a comment, including if the subcommittee was made aware by Johnson that its work would be continued by the committee. The spokesperson did not respond.
As Johnson’s statement alludes, the subcommittee does not have unilateral authority to issue subpoenas. Generally in the House, subcommittees must issue subpoenas through the cooperation of the full committee. Loudermilk has said he would relish the independent subpoena power afforded by a select committee.
The subcommittee spokesperson did not respond when asked if the House Administration Committee or its chairman, Rep. Bryan Steil (R-WI), ever interfered with an attempt to issue a subpoena to Ms. Hutchinson, although Breitbart is unaware of any attempt from Steil to do so.
In his report, Loudermilk writes that one of the two conditions he needed before accepting the subcommittee assignment from then-Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) was “that I have the autonomy and resources needed to effectively pursue the facts without political bias or outside influence.”
“McCarthy assured me that I would be given what I needed to conduct a real investigation and proper oversight,” Loudermilk said.
He continued:
At one point, the work of the subcommittee was completely halted due to the removal of Kevin McCarthy as Speaker, and subsequently faced internal efforts to derail the investigation. However, our team persevered through the delays; and, when Mike Johnson took the gavel as Speaker of the House, he allocated even more resources to our investigation and committed to more transparency for the American people.
The Oversight Subcommittee possesses more resources than most similarly constituted subcommittees, enabling it to beef up its staff, although the subcommittee has remained confined by the constraints of serving under a full committee.
Loudermilk’s work chairing the subcommittee has been widely praised by Republicans, even by Donald Trump himself.
Trump heaped praise Sunday on Loudermilk for his “great work” as chairman.
“Congratulations to Congressman Barry Loudermilk on the great work he has done in exposing the massive corruption of the J6 Unselect Committee of Political Thugs!” he posted on Truth Social, also thanking Mark Levin for elevating much of Loudermilk’s work. “We need more Warriors like Barry and Mark to expose the massive corruption taking place in our Country!”
Hutchinson worked on Capitol Hill for then-Rep. Mark Meadows (R-NC) and followed him to the White House when he became Trump’s Chief of Staff. She served in several relatively low-level capacities which included acting as a gatekeeper to Meadows – a role through which Hutchinson would have interacted with numerous lawmakers seeking time with Meadows.
Loudermilk’s subcommittee has blasted Hutchinson for communicating with disgraced Rep. Liz Cheney (R-WY) without her own attorney’s knowledge. Those communications began after Hutchinson had sat before the committee twice.
After Hutchinson and Cheney began communicating, Hutchinson went back to the committee and began introducing multiple new claims, many of them secondhand, which were subsequently denied by those present. In his report, Loudermilk says “Cassidy Hutchinson’s most outrageous claims lacked any evidence, and the Select Committee had knowledge that her claims were false when they publicly promoted her.”
“[T]he Select Committee chose to focus the conclusions of its nearly one-thousand-page report largely on the uncorroborated and inconsistent testimony of one witness—Cassidy Hutchinson,” the report points out. “Hutchinson gave Representative Cheney and the other Members of the Select Committee exactly what they were looking for.”
Bradley Jaye is a Capitol Hill Correspondent for Breitbart News. Follow him on X/Twitter at @BradleyAJaye.
