WASHINGTON, D.C.: Former United States president Donald Trump angrily lunged at his Secret Service driver and grabbed the steering wheel of his limousine in a bid to join his supporters as they marched on the US Capitol on the day of the deadly insurrection, an aide testified on Tuesday (Wednesday in Manila).

In some of the most explosive testimony so far to the US House of Representatives committee probing the Jan. 6, 2021 riot, Cassidy Hutchinson, an assistant to Trump’s chief of staff Mark Meadows, said the then-president had demanded to be taken to the Capitol after his speech near the White House.

Trump became irate when he was told that it was impossible for security reasons, and he tried to wrestle the Secret Service for control of his official car, she testified.

“I’m the effing president, take me up to the Capitol now,” Trump said, according to Hutchinson, who testified that the story was relayed to her by another administration official.

Trump, apparently watching the televised hearing, attempted to discredit Hutchinson in real time in a multiple-post rant on his social media network, dismissing the episode as a “fake story” and calling the hearing a “kangaroo court.”

US media later reported that the Secret Service agents involved may be willing to testify and deny Hutchinson’s account.

The US Secret Service did not respond to Agence France-Presse’s (AFP) request for comment.

The congressional panel has spent a year investigating the riot that temporarily halted Congress’ certification of the November 2020 presidential election result.

It has now held six public hearings to outline its initial finding: that Trump led a criminal conspiracy to overturn his defeat to Democrat Joe Biden that led to the violence.

Hutchinson was a central figure in the administration and able to offer the committee its first blowby-blow account of activity inside the White House.

She testified that Trump and some of his top lieutenants were aware of the possibility of violence, contradicting claims that the assault was spontaneous and had nothing to do with the administration.

Hutchinson said she recalled Meadows saying four days before the insurrection: “Things might get real, real bad on January 6.”

She said she had sought out her boss after a White House meeting involving Trump’s lawyer Rudy Giuliani. As they were leaving, Giuliani asked her if she was “excited” for January 6.

When she asked what the former New York mayor meant, Hutchinson recalled that he “responded something to the effect of, ‘We’re going to the Capitol.’”

“’It’s going to be great. The president’s going to be there. He’s going to look powerful…Talk to the chief about it. He knows about it,” she said, quoting Giuliani.

Hutchinson told Meadows what Giuliani had said, she testified.

“He didn’t look up from his phone and said something to the effect of, ‘There’s a lot going on, Cass, but I don’t know. Things might get real, real bad on January 6,’” she told the House hearing.

Meadows and Trump were aware of the possibility of violence, including that members of the pro-Trump mob were armed when they gathered near the White House on the day of the riot, Hutchinson said.

When she told Meadows violence had erupted, he “almost had a lack of reaction,” Hutchinson said.

Panel vice chairman Liz Cheney said the committee had obtained police reports that people at the Trump rally on the Ellipse had knives, Tasers, pepper spray and blunt objects that could be used as weapons.

Police transmissions played at the hearing showed that others outside the rally had firearms including AR-15 semi-automatic rifles.

Tuesday’s hearing was announced at the last minute amid concerns for Hutchinson’s security. Cheney suggested that former Trump officials were trying to intimidate witnesses.