Thursday 30 June 2022 10:36 PM Secret Service agent who was 'forced to restrain Trump on Jan 6' lands new job ... trends now

The decorated Secret Service agent who allegedly got into a tussle with Donald Trump in the back of the Beast during the January 6 riot can be pictured for the first time – as a source tells DailyMail.com: 'He would take a bullet for his president – but he can't lie to Congress.' 

Special Agent in Charge Robert 'Bobby' Engel was the lead agent on Trump's detail throughout his time in office, during which he dedicated his life to shielding and evacuating the president 'at any cost.' 

Now though, the federal law enforcement agent has taken up a much tamer job in Tampa, Florida, where he is now the head of the agency's field office.  

On Tuesday, former White House aide Cassidy Hutchinson told the House Select Committee that Trump had lunged for the presidential limo's steering wheel after Engel refused to drive him to the US Capitol to join rampaging supporters.

Her bombshell testimony has set the scene for lawmakers to recall Engel to ask whether it's true that he was forced to restrain the president who allegedly responded by grabbing Engel around the neck.

Engel gave evidence to the January 6 committee earlier this month, reportedly telling a closed-door session that the two men 'took different views' as they drove back to the White House instead of Capitol Hill after the Ellipse rally which preceded the 2021 rioting.

But it's unlikely the Marine corps vet, 52, would have volunteered details of the supposed physical clash unless he was specifically asked about it, one former agent told DailyMail.com – citing the Secret Service motto of 'Worthy of Trust and Confidence.' 

'They are the inner circle – the most trusted of the trusted,' our source explained. 

'It's not about protecting Trump or Joe Biden or whomever is in power, it's about protecting the relationship between the Secret Service and the Office of President.

'You have to be relied upon not to divulge the things you see and hear so it's unlikely this agent would speak openly about what happened in the limo, if indeed anything happened.

'However there is a difference between exercising discretion and being asked a question under oath. If they subpoena him and ask him a direct question about it I would expect him to answer.'

The Secret Service said Wednesday that it would soon respond 'on the record' to the 'new allegations' contained in Hutchinson's explosive testimony.

Several media outlets have reported that both Engel, the then-head of Trump's security, and the Beast's thus-far unnamed driver were both prepared to challenge her claims, citing Secret Service sources. Neither man has commented publicly.

Hutchinson, a former aide to then-White House chief of staff Mark Meadows, told the January 6 Committee that she heard about the alleged clash from White House deputy chief of staff Tony Ornato.

'I looked at Tony, and he said, "Did you f***ing hear what happened in the Beast?" Hutchinson told the panel of seven Democrats and two Republicans in Tuesday's hastily arranged session.

Trump had just given a fiery speech to his supporters outside the White House repeating accusations that his 2020 election loss was down to voter fraud before climbing back into his armored SUV, she recounted.  

'So when the president had gotten into the vehicle with Bobby, he thought that they were going up to the Capitol. And when Bobby had relayed to him: "We're not, we don't have the assets to do it, it's not secure, we're going back to the West Wing," the president had a very strong and very angry response to that,' Hutchinson said.