WASHINGTON -- A year and a half after the deadly U.S. Capitol riot, the most memorable recounting to date of former President Donald Trump's behavior that day came Tuesday from a young woman who had graduated from college just a few years earlier.
Cassidy Hutchinson gave two hours of testimony on national television that cast Trump as enraged during the riot and chief of staff Mark Meadows as unwilling to confront Trump during key moments.
Having once shed tears of joy after getting a White House internship, Hutchinson, now in her mid-20s, described how she grew disgusted by Trump's refusal to stop the rioters. And in a single afternoon, she went from being a former junior White House staffer to being a high-profile star witness.
"We were watching the Capitol building get defaced over a lie," she said.
The testimony helped fill in several key gaps about Trump's level of direct involvement that day, and placed Meadows and other key Trump officials at the center of events critical to investigations by the House committee and the Justice Department.
It amplified calls for Meadows to drop his fight against the committee's subpoena and raised new questions about whether officials around Trump could face criminal charges.
"I knew her testimony would be damning," tweeted Alyssa Farah Griffin, a former White House communications official who said she was friends with Hutchinson. "I had no idea it'd be THIS damning. I am so grateful for her courage & integrity."
Hutchinson showed her familiarity with better-known officials in the White House, referring at times to Meadows, security official Anthony Ornato and national security adviser Robert O'Brien by their first names.
Her voice never broke as she recounted quotes from Trump and Meadows in her video depositions and under live questioning from the committee's vice chairman, Rep. Liz Cheney, R-Wyo. The two women embraced after the hearing.
Hutchinson became Trump's focus for the first time. He pumped out attacks on Truth Social, the website he created after Twitter banned him following the riot.
"I hardly know who this person, Cassidy Hutchinson, is, other than I heard very negative things about her (a total phony and 'leaker')," he wrote.
He continued to post throughout the afternoon, accusing Hutchinson of lying, saying her body language "is that of a total b******* artist," and describing her handwriting as "that of a Whacko?"
Allies of Trump and Meadows also questioned some details of her testimony, which included stories she said she heard second-hand.
Meadows' attorney, George Terwilliger, told The Associated Press that Hutchinson's testimony "could not withstand even five minutes of fundamental cross-examination."
"Most of it is based on hearsay, lack of first-hand knowledge and even just pure speculation as to what others were thinking, said or did," he said.
Several high-profile Republicans said Tuesday that Hutchinson was known to be close to Meadows and often accompanied him in meetings. Early in her testimony, the committee showed photos of her with Trump and other top officials.
Mick Mulvaney, who preceded Meadows as Trump's chief of staff, tweeted during the hearing that "things just got a lot more interesting." He added that "if the President knew the protesters had weapons, and still encouraged them to go to the Capitol, that is a serious problem."
Hutchinson had the same ambitions when she graduated, telling a college publication in 2018 that she wanted to be an "effective leader in the fight to secure the American dream for future generations."
She described having been "brought to tears" when she received an email telling her she'd been accepted to a White House internship program.
"As a first-generation college student, being selected to serve as an intern alongside some of the most intelligent and driven students from across the nation -- many of whom attend top universities -- was an honor and a tremendous growing experience," she is quoted in a profile published by her alma mater, Christopher Newport University in Newport News, Va.
She says in the article that she attended events hosted by Trump and often watched out her window as Marine One would depart the White House's South Lawn.
She joined the White House shortly after graduation and became Meadows' aide in March 2020. Several months later, she would be in rooms where top Trump aides discussed how they could overturn his election loss.
There was no widespread election fraud. Trump lost more than 60 court cases attempting to prove wrongdoing.
Terwilliger defended Meadows as able to multitask and to maintain calm during crises. And another former Meadows aide, Ben Williamson, tweeted criticism of the "nonsense suggestion that Meadows somehow didn't care about initial violence at the Capitol."
Hutchinson recently switched lawyers, going from a former Trump White House official to Jody Hunt, a former Justice Department official.
"While she did not seek out the attention accompanying her testimony today, she believes that it was her duty and responsibility to provide the Committee with her truthful and candid observations of the events surrounding January 6," said Hunt and co-counsel William Jordan in a statement. "Ms. Hutchinson believes that January 6 was a horrific day for the country, and it is vital to the future of our democracy that it not be repeated."
Information for this article was contributed by Chris Megerian of The Associated Press.