- Cassidy Hutchinson said a fellow Trump aide celebrated his January 6 congressional subpoena.
- "Cheers to our subpoenas. We're officially in the big leagues," Hutchinson said Ben Williamson told her.
It turns out getting a congressional subpoena has an upside for some people, former Trump White House aide Cassidy Hutchinson wrote in her new book.
Hutchinson wrote that after news broke that the House January 6 Committee would subpoena her and Ben Williamson, a fellow aide to White House chief of staff Mark Meadows, she went over to Williamson's apartment to commiserate over the news. She claims Williamson was far from despondent.
"He was still glued to his cell phone. 'Ben!' I said, swatting at the phone. 'Did you even notice I'm here?,'" Hutchinson wrote in her memoir "Enough" which was released on Tuesday. "'Sorry yeah, give me a second,' he said flatly, sending a text. Then he cracked open his vodka seltzer. 'Cheers to our subpoenas. We're officially in the big leagues.'"
Hutchinson said that Williamson repeatedly remarked about how the news meant that the two aides were viewed as powerful enough that they might have relevant information for the committee tasked with investigating one of the worst breaches of the US Capitol since the British torched the building during the war of 1812.
"He pointed to the TV. CNN was displaying the name and photo of everyone in the committee's latest batch of subpoenas. My thumb crushed a dent in my seltzer can as Ben laughed, saying, 'Told you. Big leagues. Shows we were in the know,'" she wrote.
As for herself, Hutchinson said she had spent "several weeks, perhaps even months," preparing herself for the subpoena. She appears to take the news much harder.
Williamson did not immediately respond to Insider's request for comment. Hutchinson wrote that during her brief visit, Williamson also spoke to Meadows. Hutchinson says it's not apparent either one of them knew she could hear the conversation as Meadows tells Williamson to call him back to discuss legal options.
"'Alright, well, tell her me and Debbie [Meadows, his wife] are thinking about her, and we'll say a prayer for her," Hutchinson wrote that she heard Meadows, her former boss, say to Williamson.
Hutchinson wrote that she struggled with what to make of the fact that Meadows offered her "thoughts and prayers" while Williamson appeared to be getting more support in the face of the subpoena.
With the benefit of hindsight and the context of the book, the episode takes on a greater importance. It would be months before Hutchinson would ditch her Trumpworld lawyer and then offer her famous testimony to the January 6 committee, but the differences between her, her former boss, and the broader Trump orbit were starting to grow.