A federal grand jury in Washington, D.C., declined on Tuesday to return an indictment sought by the Justice Department against former White House aide Cassidy Hutchinson over her testimony about the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol, according to people familiar with the matter cited by CBS News, CNBC and The Philadelphia Inquirer^1,2,3.

CBS News, citing four sources briefed on the proceedings, said prosecutors failed to secure an indictment and that the department had not responded to a request for comment¹. The Inquirer, citing two people who spoke on condition of anonymity because the matter involves a grand jury, said the same outcome³. CNBC said The Washington Post first reported the decision and that MS NOW confirmed it².

In a brief appearance Tuesday afternoon, a Justice Department lawyer told U.S. Magistrate Judge Zia M. Faruqui that the grand jury had not agreed to the proposed indictment and did not name a defendant^2,3. CNBC, citing the Post, identified the lawyer as Neville Hadley². The Inquirer identified him as Neville S. Hedley, acting senior litigation counsel in the Civil Rights Division³. People familiar with the matter told the Inquirer the appearance concerned Hutchinson³.

CNBC, citing MS NOW and two people with knowledge of the case, said Civil Rights Division prosecutors sought to charge Hutchinson based on claims she made false statements². The Inquirer said presenting a false-statements inquiry through that division was unusual, attributing that characterization to prior Washington Post reporting³.

Hutchinson, an aide to then-White House chief of staff Mark Meadows in President Donald Trump's first term, testified in June 2022 before the House select committee investigating Jan. 6^2,3. CNBC and the Inquirer recapped her account that another official, Anthony Ornato, told her Trump became angry in the presidential vehicle after Secret Service personnel said he could not go to the Capitol, including a secondhand description of lunging toward the steering wheel and toward Bobby Engel, then head of the security detail^2,3.

The Inquirer reported that a 2024 Department of Homeland Security transcript of an interview with the Secret Service agent who drove Trump that day disputed Hutchinson's vehicle account, and that no other witnesses corroborated that specific account, though several people interviewed said Trump was visibly angry³. The Inquirer said Trump and Republican allies have long argued her testimony was false, and that Reps. Jim Jordan of Ohio and Barry Loudermilk of Georgia referred her to the department this year³.

The Inquirer said it is rare for grand juries to decline indictments because prosecutors need only a majority of jurors to find probable cause³. The Justice Department's response to the reports was not available from CBS or the Inquirer at publication^1,3. What, if anything, prosecutors do next was not described in the accounts reviewed^1,2,3.