CNN report: Stark County native expected to testify before Jan. 6 committee
A Stark County native who served as a deputy press secretary for President Donald Trump's White House may testify before the House Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack.
CNN first reported last week that Sarah Matthews had been subpoenaed to appear at the public hearing held July 12.
She did not appear live on that date. However, she could appear when the committee meets again. The date for the next session will be in prime time on July 21, according to NBC News.
The committee’s vice chair, U.S. Rep. Liz Cheney, R-Wyoming, said the panel will present a minute-by-minute account of what occurred on Jan. 6. Matthews has said she was among those in the White House who'd wanted the president to deliver a message on Twitter to calm the crowd.
Matthews, 27, is a 2013 Hoover High graduate, who went on to earn a degree in public relations from Kent State University. Her father, Jeff Matthews, is a longtime director of the Stark County Board of Elections and is former chairman of the GOP in the county.
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Sarah Matthews did not immediately respond Monday to a message left for her at the House Select Committee on the Climate Crisis, where she now works, according to her Linked in profile.
Matthews was among a wave of White House staffers, including Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao and Education Secretary Betsy DeVos, who resigned after a mob stormed and vandalized the Capitol.
At the time, Matthews issued this statement:
"I was honored to serve in the Trump administration and proud of the policies we enacted. As someone who worked in the halls of Congress I was deeply disturbed by what I saw today. I'll be stepping down from my role, effective immediately. Our nation needs a peaceful transfer of power."
Who is Sarah Matthews, a native of North Canton?
In 2020, Matthews was interviewed for a piece about her career, posted on the Kent State website last Fall.
In it, she detailed how she'd served three political internships before moving on to jobs with the House Committee on Homeland Security, then Committee on Energy and Commerce.
Then, while working for the Trump re-election campaign, Matthews said she met Kayleigh McEnany. When McEnany took the press secretary position at the White House, she hired Matthews in June 2020.
“In this role, I serve as a spokesperson for President Trump and spend a lot of my day working with the White House press corps," Matthews said for the Kent State piece. "I also develop messaging strategy, prep Kayleigh for briefings, and staff the president for interviews.”
Matthews already appeared on videotape during a prior Jan. 6 Committee hearing, on June 16. U.S. Rep Pete Aguilar, D-California, introduced that clip, in which Matthews said she and others received a Trump tweet, critical of Vice President Mike Pence.
"It felt like he was pouring gasoline on the fire," she told the Committee.
Jan. 6 committee testimony
Tuesday's hearing, scheduled to begin at 1 p.m., is the seventh of eight planned. The final two "are expected to focus on the assembly of a violent mob in Washington, DC, that Trump directed to march to the US Capitol and on Trump ignoring pleas for assistance and failing to take immediate action to try to stop the violence," according to CNN.
The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, also a Gannett newspaper, has a primer on how and where to watch. The session will be the first since former White House aide Cassidy Hutchinson testified on June 28.
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On that day, Matthews issued three tweets about Hutchinson, praising her bravery for speaking up, daring naysayers to testify under oath and explaining Hutchinson's duties.
"Anyone downplaying Cassidy Hutchinson’s role or her access in the West Wing either doesn’t understand how the Trump WH worked or is attempting to discredit her because they’re scared of how damning this testimony is," Matthews tweeted that afternoon.
Reach Tim at 330-580-8333 or tim.botos@cantonrep.com. On Twitter: @tbotosREP
This article originally appeared on The Repository: Who is Sarah Matthews, the Stark native and witness at Jan. 6 hearing?
