The Justice Department's Civil Rights Division has opened a probe into former Trump White House aide Cassidy Hutchinson, according to a news report Tuesday.

Hutchinson testified in 2022 before a special House committee on the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riot that implicated President Trump.

The DOJ is looking into whether Hutchinson committed perjury during her testimony, unnamed sources told The New York Times, which is reporting the story.

The department assigning the case to the division appears unusual considering it focuses on potential civil rights violations -- not allegations of crime, which would include lying to Congress.

...

A probe regarding perjury before Congress would typically be handled by the U.S. attorney's office in Washington, D.C., which is run by U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro.

However, she has also experienced several setbacks in her attempts to pursue criminal cases in federal court against Trump's political opponents.

DOJ leaders didn't offer Pirro the opportunity to open the probe into Hutchinson, instead giving it directly to Civil Rights Division chief Harmeet Dhillon, the anonymous sources also said.

Off to do the final (?) coat of varnish.

Update: Done. At least the upper-facing surfaces are. I only did two coats on the undersides and legs so at 6:30 I'll flip the desk over, give it a quick and sloppy sanding, and dump the rest of the varnish on the underside.