Cassidy Hutchinson says Trump chief of staff Mark Meadows used to burn official papers in his office

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Cassidy Hutchinson, the former aide to Mark Meadows, has revealed in her testimony to the Jan 6 House committee how the ex-chief of staff routinely burned documents in his office.

A fresh batch of transcripts released by the committee investigating the Capitol riots on Tuesday revealed Ms Hutchinson’s testimony from May in which she had told the committee that she saw Mr Meadows burn documents in his office fireplace around a dozen times – about once or twice a week – between December 2020 and mid January 2021.

She said that the general administration staff were asked to light the fireplace in the morning and additional logs were kept next to it and in his closet.

“So throughout the day, he would put more logs on the fireplace to keep it burning throughout the day. And I recall roughly a dozen times where he would take the – I don’t know the formal name for what it’s called that covers the fireplace – but take that off and then throw a few more pieces of paper in with it when he put more logs on the fireplace,” she said.

Her testimony was first reported in May by Politico which spoke to sources familiar with the committee proceedings.

The transcripts revealed Mr Meadows burned documents at least twice after meetings with Republican representative Scott Perry.

The Pennsylvania Republican has been linked to the efforts to use the Justice Department to overturn the 2020 election.

Ms Hutchinson said she recalled an account of being in Mr Meadows’ office when he threw documents into the fireplace after a meeting.

According to the transcripts, Ms Hutchinson said she did not know what the documents were, whether they were original copies or were required by law to be preserved.

It was earlier reported that Ms Hutchinson, who served as special assistant in the Trump administration, told the select committee during that deposition that “there were concerns brought forward” to her former boss ahead of the Jan 6 insurrection.

But she was unsure what he did with that information.