Rep. Adam Kinzinger, R-Ill., claimed on Thursday that a Secret Service agent serving before the Jan. 6 commission could testify about the timeline of events surrounding former president Donald Trump during the riot “likes to lie.”
Two Secret Service agents, Tony Ornato and Robert Engel, are willing to testify before Congress that then-President Donald Trump did not jump at the wheel or assault them in an attempt to get to the Capitol during the riots of January 6A source close to the Secret Service told Fox News’ David Spunt this week.
The explosive new accusations were created Tuesday by Cassidy Hutchinson, a former top aide to Trump’s White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows.
This week, a series of posts gathered on social media in which colleagues and opponents of Ornato accused him of not telling the truth in the past and of being a common liar.
“Tony Ornato appears to be denying the conversations he has apparently had,” said Olivia Troye, former White House Homeland Security adviser under Mike Pence. “First this one with Keith Kellogg in ‘I Alone Can Fix It’ [and] now he denies the story he told Cassidy Hutchinson. Those of us who have worked with Tony know where his loyalties lie. He must testify under oath.”
“Tony Ornato lied about me too,” CNN’s Alyssa Farah Griffin said. “During the protests at Lafayette Sq. in 2020, I told Mark Meadows [and] Ornato, they had to warn the press before they cleared the square. Meadows replied, ‘We don’t.'”
She added: “Tony later lied… [and] said the exchange never took place. He knows it was.”
The whirlwind of attacks on Ornato’s trustworthiness caught the eye of Kinzinger, who publicly noted that Ornato often lies.
“There seems to be a big common thread here…Tony Ornato likes to lie,” Kinzinger wrote.
Rep. Liz Cheney declined to comment on the possibility of Secret Service members testifying for the January 6 committee after two agents disputed claims about Trump’s behavior during the riot.
When pressed or the Secret Service Members would speak of growing discrepancies in witness testimony, Cheney objected.
“The committee has spoken with both Mr. Ornato and Mr. Engel, and we welcome additional testimony, under oath, from both of them, and from anyone in the Secret Service who has information on any of these issues,” Cheney told ABC. News.