Secret Service agent, 48, who 'claimed Trump grabbed the limo steering wheel to go to the Capitol on January 6' RETIRES: Comes two months after Cassidy Hutchinson's explosive testimony
August 30, 2022
(excepts- Cassidy Hutchinson and Alyssa Farrah the prime instigators)
The US Secret Service confirmed to DailyMail.com in a statement that Assistant Director Anthony Ornato is retired as of Monday
Ornato became a central figure in the House select committee on January 6's investigation into the Capitol riot earlier this year during the panel's hearings
Ex-White House aide Cassidy Hutchinson testified that Ornato described Donald Trump lashing out at agents when they refused to take him to the US Capitol
Ornato appears to have had an unusually close relationship with Trump
He served on Trump's White House staff briefly at the end of 2019
The retired agent told CNN he's moving to a job in the private sector
Ornato was a key member of Trump's orbit before and after the US Capitol attack last year.
Cassidy Hutchinson, the former assistant to Trump's final chief of staff Mark Meadows, told a panel of lawmakers in June that Ornato described the former president becoming 'irate' when Secret Service agents refused to take him to the US Capitol with his supporters.
Ornato allegedly told her that Trump demanded: 'I'm the f***ing president, take me up to the Capitol now.'==
People close to Ornato told multiple outlets that he was denying Hutchinson's story - though that was further complicated when other former White House aides accused him of lying.
'Tony Ornato sure seems to deny conversations he’s apparently had,'former Mike Pence aide Olivia Troyewrote on Twitter after Hutchinson's hearing.
Another former Trump staffer, Alyssa Farah, added: 'Tony Ornato lied about me too.'
'During the protests at Lafayette sq in 2020, I told Mark Meadows & Ornato they needed to warn press staged there before clearing the square. Meadows replied: “we aren’t doing that.” Tony later lied & said the exchange never happened. He knows it did,' Farah claimed.
Ornato was unusually close with Trump for a Secret Service agent, having briefly departing his law enforcement role for a stint as the ex-president's deputy chief of staff in December 2019. He later returned to the agency.
Sauce: https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11160419/Tony-Ornato-Secret-Service-agent-January-6-Donald-Trump.html