Audit backs Trump on Jan. 6 claim; he did not lunge at agents to grab steering wheel

President Trump did try to have the Secret Service take him to the U.S. Capitol on the afternoon of Jan. 6, 2021, but agents with him in the limousine rebutted a claim that he tried to grab the steering wheel and force the vehicle, according to an inspector general’s report.

The account contradicts the testimony of former White House aide Cassidy Hutchinson, who assisted Democrats’ Jan. 6 investigation with her claim that an “irate” president grabbed the steering wheel and demanded to join the demonstration.

Investigators said agents discouraged the idea early on for Mr. Trump to go to the Capitol. 

On Jan. 6, after he addressed a rally at the Ellipse, Mr. Trump asked whether he could go to the Capitol but was told the roads made it impossible.

The inspector general spoke with agents who were in the car. The driver said Mr. Trump was angry, but another agent said he didn’t recall that being the case. Several agents denied the claim that the president grabbed the wheel.

“We asked [redacted] agents whether the President reached for the steering wheel of the limousine or lunged toward the detail lead when his request to go to the Capitol was denied, and [redacted] witnesses said those actions did not occur,” the audit said.

At the Ellipse, Mr. Trump ended his speech to supporters with an exhortation to march to the Capitol, where lawmakers were conducting the Electoral College vote count that certified his defeat in the 2020 election.

Mr. Trump left the rally at 1:16 p.m. and was back at the White House by 1:19.

By that time, Capitol Police were already confronting rioters. The Capitol was breached after 2 p.m.

Ms. Hutchinson was one of the Democrats’ star witnesses in their Jan. 6 investigation because she could provide an inside account. She told the panel that her story about the steering wheel came from a deputy chief of staff, but the inspector general said the official denied the account.

The inspector general confirmed some “near encounters” with rioters and Vice President Mike Pence.

Secret Service agents removed Mr. Pence from the Senate chamber at 2:12. Three minutes later, protesters reached the area outside the Senate chamber. A Capitol Police officer diverted the intruders. Had that officer not led them away, the audit said, the rioters could have found the vice president and his family.

The heavily redacted report also details the Secret Service’s efforts to remove Vice President-elect Kamala Harris from the headquarters of the Democratic National Committee after a pipe bomb was found just outside the building.

The report says Ms. Harris’ motorcade passed within 20 feet of the pipe bomb before it was discovered.

The inspector general said the Secret Service had explosives detection dogs on site but didn’t have clear guidance about where to sweep. No explosive ordinance disposal team was on site.

In an official response to the audit, Kimberly Cheatle, who was ousted as Secret Service director last month after Mr. Trump was nearly assassinated, said the inspector general’s investigation was worrying.

She said the inquiry was too broad and covered “highly sensitive” communications from top leaders that she felt were beyond the scope of the events of Jan. 6. She hinted that Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, who oversees the Secret Service, could have been asked to shut down the audit.

Republicans have been demanding the release of the report, which they said Mr. Mayorkas was keeping from the public. Republican lawmakers made their demands public last month.

The report was released after business hours on Friday.

Republicans said the report showed a striking effort to undermine the independent inspector general, including Ms. Cheatle’s resistance to turning over communications and the deletion of text messages that Congress and the inspector general had asked to be preserved.

Ms. Cheatle said the messages were deleted as part of a scheduled data “migration,” but the House Administration Committee said that should have been put on hold once Congress and the inspector general sought the information.