Cassidy Hutchinson says Trump demanded to be driven to the Capitol on January 6

Former aide Cassidy Hutchinson testifies Donald Trump tried to grab the steering wheel of the presidential limousine and lunged at the head of his security detail after being told it wasn’t safe to go.

Cassidy Hutchinson, a top aide to former White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows, testifies during the sixth hearing by the House Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the US Capitol, in Washington, DC.

Damning, unexpected testimony from a former aide to Donald Trump’s chief of staff during the January 6th riots last year has increased the chance the former president will face criminal charges over his role in the historic push to overturn the 2020 election result.

Cassidy Hutchinson, a former assistant to White House chief of staff Mark Meadows, said in bombshell testimony on Tuesday (Wednesday AEST) that Mr Trump already knew protesters were armed and potentially dangerous before he encouraged them to march on the Capitol to pressure then Vice President Mike Pence to disavow the 2020 election.

“I was in the vicinity of a conversation where I overheard the president say something to the effect of, ‘You know, I don’t even care that they have weapons. They’re not here to hurt me,’” Hutchinson said, speaking live before a public hearing of the January 6th Committee in Washington.

The 25-year-old former aide also said Mr Trump tried to wrestle the wheel off the driver of his presidential limousine, who had insisted, against Mr Trump’s wishes, to take him back to the White House after his speech.

“I’m the effing president, take me up to the Capitol now,” Ms Hutchinson said Mr Trump had said. Mr Engel, the secret service agent driver, said, “Sir, we have to go back to the West Wing.”

The former president, who has attacked the legitimacy of the January 6th committee from its inception, denied the accusations on his Truth Social media platform, accusing Ms Hutchinson of having sour grapes after he “personally” allegedly rejected her for a job after his administration left the White House.

“I hardly know who this person, Cassidy Hutchinson, is, other than I heard very negative things about her (a total phony and ‘leaker’),” he said.

The fresh testimony, scheduled for Tuesday a day earlier, will diminish the former president’s reputation, but any impact on his significant influence in the Republican party and his prospects for running in the 2024 presidential election remain unclear.

Mick Mulvaney, former Republican Congressman and Mark Meadows predecessor as Donald Trump’s chief of staff, backed Ms Hutchinson’s testimony, describing the revelations as “explosive”.

“Trump knew the protesters had guns, that he assaulted his own security team, that there may be a line from the Proud Boys to the White House, top aides asked for pardons [and] the commission thinks they have evidence of witness tampering,” he said, summarising the day’s revelations.

“Things went very badly for the former President today. My guess is that it will get worse from here,” he said on Twitter.

The January 6th Committee, which includes seven Democrats and two Republicans, is in the midst of a series of public televised hearings meant to shed light on the former president’s role in the January 6th riots.

US President Donald Trump sits inside his armored limousine known as ‘The Beast’.

Alex Little, a criminal defence lawyer and former assistant lawyer with the Justice Department, said the latest hearing was “incredibly damning” for Mr Trump, suggesting his behaviour was “in line with charges like seditious conspiracy”

“If you have president who’s been told don’t go, as it will only inflame things, and he is so desperate to get there he’s physically laying his hands on folks meant to protect him, that’s pretty damning evidence the president’s mind was to get to capital and subvert will of the voters,” he told Fox News.

“Then the discussions back in White House about the president not caring about chants to hang Mike Pence - that’s pretty damning stuff if you put that in that in front of criminal jury in a criminal trial”.

Liz Cheney, the top ranking Republican on the committee, said it had evidence of pressure being put on at least two witnesses not to incriminate Mr Trump or his allies.

“That’s pretty classic obstruction of justice, there’s a whole avenue of criminal charges there that haven’t been discussed,” Mr Little said.

Cassidy Hutchinson, a top aide to former White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows, holds her wrist while describing the actions of former US president Donald Trump.

The hearing also revealed that Mr Meadows and Rudy Giuliani, Trump’s personal lawyer, had sought pardons over their roles in the events surrounding January 6th.

Solomon Wisenberg, a lawyer and former deputy to Kenneth Starr during the Whitewater investigations into the Clintons in the 1990s, told the New York Times the evidence was a “smoking gun”.

“There isn’t any question this establishes a prima facie case for his criminal culpability on seditious conspiracy charges,” he said.