Trump aides at heart of explosive Jan. 6 claims have hired private lawyers, committee member says

U.S. Representative Zoe Lofgren (D-CA) speaks during the second public hearing of the U.S. House Select Committee to Investigate the January 6 Attack on the United States Capitol, at Capitol Hill, in Washington, U.S. June 13, 2022.

A member of the House committee investigating the riot said that presidential security officials have retained private counsel.

Lofgren said that some of the officers said they would be coming and talking under oath.

Lofgren said that they recently retained private counsel and that they have a right to do that.

Tony Ornato, a top Trump aide who was also a Secret Service agent, is one of those officers. Lofgren said that the driver of the vehicle that brought Trump back to the White House has retained private counsel.

Cassidy Hutchinson, a former White House official, cited those officials in public testimony.

According to Hutchinson, Ornato said that Trump lunged at Engel inside a presidential vehicle after being told that the Secret Service wouldn't take him to the U.S. Capitol.

She testified that Tony said that Trump said, "I'm the effing president, take me up to the Capitol now!"

Hutchinson said that Ornato told her that Trump had grabbed for the steering wheel and that he had been ordered to stop. Hutchinson said that Trump used his free hand to lunge at the writer.

She said that he did not deny it at the time and has not since.

Former U.S. President Donald Trump acknowledges people as he gets in his SUV outside Trump Tower in New York, March 9, 2021.

Trump denied Hutchinson's testimony and claimed it would have been difficult for him to reach for the steering wheel.

The sources associated with the Secret Service made statements to many reporters questioning Hutchinson's testimony.

The driver of the vehicle was prepared to testify that Trump never reached for the wheel, according to NBC News. CNN reported that another Secret Service official said that Ornato didn't tell Hutchinson that Trump lunged for the wheel.

Hutchinson testified under oath and recounted what she was told according to Jody Hunt. The people with knowledge of the episode should testify.

Lofgren said that they have not done so yet.

Anthony Guglielmi, communications chief for the Secret Service, told CNBC that the agency is cooperating with the committee and will make a statement from the director.

After the eighth public hearing on the initial findings from the yearlong investigation, the committee member commented on the findings.

The hearing focused on Trump's lack of action during the riot, even as his staff, allies and family begged him to call off the mob.

The committee members argued that Trump's refusal to stop the riot was not just a "dereliction of duty" but a deliberate choice by the president who was determined to stop or disrupt the transfer of power.

The witnesses who testified at the prime-time hearing described a heated argument that took place after Trump was told he wouldn't be taken to the Capitol.

More hearings will be held in September as the committee gathers evidence.

The hearing came hours after NBC News and other outlets reported that the Department of Homeland Security's internal watchdog has opened a criminal investigation into the deletion of Secret Service communications during the riots.

The Secret Service said that some data was lost due to a system migration process that began in January.

According to the select committee, the Secret Service may have violated the Federal Records Act.