Grand jury declines to indict Cassidy Hutchinson over Jan. 6 testimony

Key takeaways

• A federal grand jury in Washington, D.C., returned a "no bill" on Tuesday, Oct. 27, 2026, refusing a Justice Department bid to charge Cassidy Hutchinson.
• Prosecutors had sought charges accusing the former Trump White House aide of lying to the House Jan. 6 committee in 2022, according to ABC News and Fox News.
• Hutchinson has maintained that her testimony was truthful. She has not been charged with any crime.
• The decision does not stop the Justice Department from trying again, and it is not yet known whether prosecutors will.

The Cassidy Hutchinson grand jury declined to indict the former White House aide on Tuesday, Oct. 27, 2026, rejecting a Justice Department effort to charge her over her 2022 Jan. 6 committee testimony, according to Reuters, NBC News, ABC News and Fox News, all citing people familiar with the matter.

What happened in the Cassidy Hutchinson grand jury case

The outcome first surfaced in a courtroom. A federal prosecutor told U.S. Magistrate Judge Zia Faruqui at a hearing on Tuesday that a Washington grand jury had rejected a proposed indictment, without naming the person or the charges, Reuters reported. NBC News said a senior U.S. official confirmed that the rejected case was Hutchinson's, and that the grand jury had issued a "no bill."

ABC News reported shortly before 23:00 UTC on Oct. 27 (6:46 p.m. Eastern) that the department had sought charges of lying to Congress about her testimony to the House Select Committee on the January 6 attack. ABC said the Washington Post was first to report the decision. Fox News, citing two sources, said the effort to indict her over allegations of false statements to the committee failed on Tuesday. Reuters, in a story published on Yahoo at 02:53 UTC on Oct. 28, said a source familiar with the matter confirmed that the grand jury declined to indict.

The case was brought by officials in the Justice Department's Civil Rights Division, which is led by Trump appointee Harmeet Dhillon, NBC News reported. NBC said the grand jury heard evidence in early October.

What we know and what we don't know yet

Still unconfirmed: the exact statute prosecutors relied on, the vote count (grand jury deliberations are secret), and whether the department will present the case again. A Justice Department spokesperson did not immediately respond to ABC News, and Hutchinson's attorneys did not immediately respond to NBC News. Fox News noted that the grand jury's decision does not establish whether her testimony was true or false.

Background: Hutchinson's Jan. 6 testimony

Hutchinson was an aide to former White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows. At a televised hearing on June 28, 2022, she gave the House committee a secondhand account that President Donald Trump lunged for the steering wheel of his presidential vehicle after his Ellipse speech on Jan. 6, 2021. ABC News reported that Trump has vehemently denied that account and that other White House employees did not corroborate the lunging detail.

Trump has called Hutchinson a "scam artist" and suggested she be prosecuted, NBC News reported. House Republicans referred her to the Justice Department for prosecution, and Trump shared an article about that referral in March, according to NBC. ABC News added that former special counsel Jack Smith chose not to treat her as a material witness because much of her testimony was hearsay. Hutchinson has said she stands by what she told the committee.

The case is the latest in a run of failed attempts by federal prosecutors to secure indictments. NBC News reported that prosecutors tried three times to indict New York Attorney General Letitia James and were denied each time, and that a grand jury also declined to indict six Democratic members of Congress over a video urging military and intelligence personnel not to follow unlawful orders. Separately, the Justice Department this month charged two former FBI officials with lying to Congress over the Hunter Biden laptop probe, and a federal judge ruled that the department unlawfully fired prosecutor Maurene Comey.

What it means

A grand jury hears only the prosecution's side, so a no bill signals that jurors were not persuaded even at that early stage. ABC News described the outcome as the latest setback for the Justice Department in what critics call a "campaign of retribution" by Trump against his opponents. Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche told NBC News in April that in some failed cases a grand jury may simply have "made the wrong decision."

A no bill is not an acquittal. Prosecutors can return to a grand jury with the same or different evidence. NBC News also reported that a new policy from the chief federal judge in Washington now requires prosecutors to tell the duty magistrate judge when a grand jury rejects an indictment. That rule is why this outcome became public at all.

Key things to watch: whether the Civil Rights Division brings the case back to a grand jury, any statement from Hutchinson or her lawyers, and whether Trump or the Justice Department responds publicly. More context on related cases is on the Justice Department and Donald Trump topic pages.

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