For years, Democrats had a favorite slogan. They repeated it on cable news, on the campaign trail, pretty much anywhere and everywhere they could. Whenever a prosecutor went after President Donald Trump with bogus charges, we were told “no one is above the law,” and they said it with the confidence of people who never expected the phrase to be used against them.
The Justice Department is reportedly seeking a federal criminal indictment of Cassidy Hutchinson, the former Trump aide who was the Democrats' star witness at a 2022 Jan. 6 congressional hearing, on charges that she lied to Congress. And naturally, the left and the anti-Trump right are freaking out.
Punchbowl News reporter Laura Weiss broke the story on Thursday.
News: DOJ is seeking a federal criminal indictment of former WH aide Cassidy Hutchinson on charges of lying to Congress in her Jan. 6 testimony DOJ's Civil Rights Division brought evidence to a federal grand jury on Tuesday and is expected to present more evidence and additional witnesses later this month, per sources familiar with the plans. Hutchinson has not been subpoenaed to appear before the grand jury, per the sources MORE to come on this news from me and @bresreports in @PunchbowlNews Midday. Text subscribers got it first
— Laura Weiss (@LauraEWeiss16) October 8, 2026
According to the report, the DOJ's Civil Rights Division put evidence in front of a federal grand jury on Tuesday, and prosecutors plan to return later this month with more evidence and more witnesses. The case centers on what Hutchinson told the House Select Committee on June 28, 2022. Prosecutors have not subpoenaed Hutchinson herself. None of this came out of nowhere, either. She was already known to be under federal investigation for possible false statements to the committee.
So let's look at the evidence. Hutchinson served in the first Trump administration as a special assistant to the president and an aide to then-White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows. Her most sensational claim was that Trump flew into a rage at a Secret Service agent on Jan. 6 and lunged for the steering wheel of his vehicle. The media treated it as a bombshell, even though it was clearly ridiculous and implausible.
And sure enough, the story has been thoroughly debunked. Hutchinson doesn’t even claim to have seen any of it, either. She told the committee she heard it from Tony Ornato, then the White House deputy chief of staff, who wasn't in the car either. Trump's driver later swore under oath that Trump never reached for the wheel. Bobby Engel, the lead agent on Trump's detail and a passenger in that vehicle, testified to the committee as well. So did Ornato. Neither backed up Hutchinson's claims. She lied.
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Then there's the work of Rep. Barry Loudermilk (R-Ga.), who chairs the House Administration Committee's Subcommittee on Oversight. His subcommittee released an interim report in December 2024, and it was quite damning. "President Trump did not attack his Secret Service Detail at any time on January 6," the report concluded. "President Trump did not have intelligence indicating violence on the morning of January 6." Perhaps most striking was this finding: "Cassidy Hutchinson falsely claimed to have drafted a handwritten note for President Trump on January 6." Loudermilk later referred her to the DOJ, and that referral apparently helped launch the investigation now before the grand jury.
A grand jury will now decide whether the evidence supports charges, which is exactly how the system is supposed to work.
Of course, Democrats see it differently.
"Cassidy Hutchinson displayed true courage when she testified about how President Trump incited a deadly mob to attack the Capitol," Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) wrote on X. "The President's targeting of her shows yet again that he's more concerned with imprisoning his opponents than the cost-of-living crisis impacting Americans across the country."
Sarah Matthews of The Bulwark went even further. "Cassidy Hutchinson had her entire career ahead of her and she was willing to sacrifice it to do what so few in Washington are willing to do: tell the truth," she claimed. "She has shown more courage, patriotism, and integrity than the Republican politicians who had far more power, far less to lose, and still chose to remain silent. She is an American hero and this shameless witch hunt against her is nothing more than a vindictive waste of time and taxpayer resources."
A witch hunt? That’s adorable. Democrats spent years justifying their own witch hunt against Trump with that one tidy mantra that “no one is above the law,” and they forget it every time an ally or a Trump enemy lands in legal trouble.
This isn't the first time we've heard Trump's enemies cry foul when his Department of Justice investigates someone on the left or a Trump enemy on the right. In the end, equal justice means the same rules for the accuser as for the accused. Democrats wrote that rule themselves, and they don't get to retire it the moment it becomes inconvenient.
