Kinzinger says Secret Service Jan. 6 inconsistencies ‘pure incompetence’ or ‘potentially very criminal’

Rep. Adam Kinzinger (R-Ill.), a member of the House Jan. 6 select committee, told CNN on Monday that “inconsistencies” exist in Secret Service officials’ accounts surrounding the Capitol attack.

During an appearance on CNN’s “The Situation Room” with host Wolf Blitzer, Kinzinger said the committee is pursuing those inconsistencies as questions swirl over an alleged altercation on Jan. 6 between former President Trump and Secret Service agents in the presidential vehicle.

“There is something going on at the Secret Service, either pure incompetence all the way on the scale to potentially very criminal activity or just having a preference for one side or the other,” Kinzinger told CNN.

Trump White House aide Cassidy Hutchinson testified before the Jan. 6 committee publicly in June that Secret Service assistant director Tony Ornato, who was also Trump’s deputy chief of staff, relayed to her that Trump was “irate” in the limousine upon learning he couldn’t go to the Capitol.

Hutchinson testified Trump lunged at his security detail in the car — which comprised Ornato and another agent — and toward the steering wheel, which allegedly occurred following Trump’s Ellipse rally speech.

Ornato, who previously spoke with the Jan. 6 panel and retired from the agency two months after Hutchinson’s testimony, has said he is willing to dispute Hutchinson’s account under oath, but he has so far not spoken publicly about it.

“It’s not for me to say at this point whether they lied or not,” Kinzinger said on CNN. “There are some inconsistencies that we’re going to pursue. There are a lot of questions, things they said earlier that maybe witnesses have countered.”

Last week, the Jan. 6 panel held what could be their final public hearing, when lawmakers made public some of the more than 1 million electronic documents they recently received from the Secret Service.

Those documents showed the agency knew about violent threats in the days leading up to Jan. 6 and agents knew some in the crowd near the Ellipse were armed.

Rep. Zoe Lofgren (D-Calif.), who also sits on the panel, told CNN on Sunday that the committee will ask Ornato to testify again.

“There’s a lot of answers we simply don’t have,” Kinzinger told Blitzer on Monday. “They have made it clear through anonymous sources that they’re willing to come in and testify. We want to hear them again. We want to talk to them, and it’s going to be under oath.”