Cassidy Hutchinson: Five things we learned from latest Trump aide book

Hutchinson was a star witness of the Capitol riot hearings in Congress

Cassidy Hutchinson is the former White House aide who MSNBC said "gave some of the most compelling, damning and explosive testimony" to the 6 January committee investigating the attack on the US Capitol in 2021.

She was the top aide to Mark Meadows, then-president Donald Trump's White House chief of staff.

Some of her most vivid testimony was her account of an enraged Mr Trump tossing his plate of lunch across the room after hearing Attorney General Bill Barr say he saw no evidence of widespread fraud in the 2020 election.

Ms Hutchinson also told the committee of the time when an "irate" Mr Trump demanded to be taken to the US Capitol on 6 January and was allegedly "grabbing for the steering wheel" and the "neck" of a secret service agent refusing to oblige.

She has released a new book, titled Enough, which unveils new details about her time in the White House and working for Mr Trump, a man she described as "dangerous to our democracy".

Ms Hutchinson alleged in the book that Rudy Giuliani groped her on 6 January 2021 while they were backstage at a rally that preceded the US Capitol attack.

Mr Giuliani approached her "like a wolf closing in on its prey", Ms Hutchinson wrote.

He put his hands "under my blazer, then my skirt", she recalled. Mr Giuliani has denied the claims in an interview on Newsmax, calling them "absolutely false, totally absurd".

In her book, she said she had planned to continue working for Mr Trump after his term ended but was denied the opportunity two days before leaving the White House.

Mr Trump suspected her of leaking information to the press, Mr Meadows told her, claims which Ms Hutchinson denied.

"My frustration turned to rage. 'Mark, you can go to hell if you think that'," Ms Hutchinson wrote.

Ms Hutchinson said Mr Meadows burned so many documents in his fireplace during the final days of Mr Trump's presidency that his wife complained about the "bonfire" aroma coming from Mr Meadows' suits.

Ms Hutchinson once propped open the door to a patio to let out smoke despite the cold December air, she wrote.

"I do not know precisely what papers Mark was burning, but his actions raised alarms," she said. "Even if he was burning copies, he was still toeing a fine line of what should be preserved, under the law."

Ms Hutchinson described how classified documents were handled casually in the Trump White House.

During one encounter with Mr Meadows, she wrote that he scolded her for storing classified binders about Crossfire Hurricane, an FBI investigation of Russian interference in the 2016 election, in a safe rather than in her desk drawer as Mr Meadows instructed.

She described handling armloads of classified documents at the White House, noting that she did not have a security clearance to deal with them.

Mr Meadows had asked her to coordinate declassification of documents during Mr Trump's last month in office, she wrote.

Meadows (left) seen looking on as Trump speaks to the media

Donald Trump once joked about having Covid-19, according to Ms Hutchinson.

Aboard Air Force One with Mr Meadows on 29 September 2020, Mr Trump questioned his health, saying he thought his voice had sounded "a little bit off" at a rally in Minnesota.

But he also said he did not want the media to "accuse me of something ridiculous, like having Covid", the aide wrote.

Mr Meadows "laughed and promised him that we would handle it if it happened". The "we" referred to Mr Meadows and Ms Hutchinson.

Mr Trump had both tested positive and negative on separate occasions before making the remarks.