A sexting problem in the GOP could have kept Republicans from interrogating a key political target.
The Washington Post reports that Republicans avoided subpoenaing Mark Meadows’ former Chief of Staff Cassidy Hutchinson last year to avoid the embarrassing fallout of her testimony. An aide to House Speaker Mike Johnson worried Hutchinson could bring up sexually explicit texts from GOP representatives.
As part of a GOP-launched probe into the bipartisan committee to investigate Jan. 6, Rep. Barry Loudermilk, R-Ga., floated issuing a subpoena for the former White House aide’s testimony. According to correspondence reviewed by the Post and an anonymous source with knowledge of the event, a Johnson aide warned Loudermilk that a subpoena risked exposing “sexual texts from members who were trying to engage in sexual favors.” In an email, another Johnson staffer reportedly told Loudermilk’s office that Hutchinson could “potentially reveal embarrassing information.”
The subpoena plan was part of a broader GOP effort to poke holes in the work of the previous Jan 6 Committee, including Hutchinson’s testimony that Donald Trump ignored warnings about potential violence.
Johnson denied that he spoke out against bringing Hutchinson to testify.
“I had nothing to do with that, the decision not to issue a subpoena to Cassidy Hutchinson was made by the chairman of that committee, and that’s Barry Loudermilk,” Johnson said on Thursday, following the Post’s report. The speaker claimed that Hutchinson had already agreed to cooperate with the committee, and thus a subpoena wasn’t needed.
On Wednesday, Johnson carried on Loudermilk’s effort to relitigate Jan. 6 and the subsequent investigation, empaneling a subcommittee to probe the work of the original committee.
“House Republicans are proud of our work so far in exposing the false narratives peddled by the politically motivated January 6 Select Committee during the 117th Congress, but there is still more work to be done,” Johnson said in a statement.
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