- The January 6 committee claimed a witness had been encouraged to change their testimony, CNN claimed.
- For each CNN, the witness was Cassidy Hutchinson, former aide to Trump White Home Main of Team Mark Meadows.
- The lawyer denied the allegations to Insider, expressing he represented Hutchinson “honorably.”
An attorney who previously represented a vital January 6 witness advised them to mislead the January 6 committee about what she realized, CNN reported.
All through Monday’s closing January 6 committee hearing, Rep. Zoe Lofgren claimed an unnamed witness experienced been advised by another person near to Trump to make statements in an endeavor to deceive the committee. And in the govt summary of the January 6 hearings, the committee wrote that an unnamed attorney experienced advised their shopper to “notify the Committee that she did not recall info when she really did remember them.”
The committee did not identify possibly the witness or the human being they claimed tried using to impact the testimony.
Nevertheless, multiple unnamed sources advised CNN that Stefan Passantino, a previous White Home law firm who served as chief ethics lawyer beneath previous President Donald Trump’s administration, was the attorney. CNN described that Cassidy Hutchinson, a former Trump White Household aide who gave bombshell public testimony earlier this 12 months, was the witness. Unnamed resources acquainted with the issue also verified to The New York Periods that Hutchinson was the witness in issue.
Two sources informed CNN that Hutchinson experienced relayed the incident to the Division of Justice. Passantino has not been billed with a criminal offense.
In a assertion to Insider, Passantino denied the accusations, and accused the committee of not reaching out to him “to get the information.”
“As with all my clients in the course of my 30 decades of observe, I represented Ms. Hutchinson honorably, ethically, and thoroughly reliable with her sole pursuits as she communicated them to me. I considered Ms. Hutchinson was remaining truthful and cooperative with the Committee during the various job interview periods in which I represented her,” Passantino explained to Insider.
Passantino represented Hutchinson from 2021, when the Property committee started its investigation, up until eventually a month just before her community testimony with the Jan. 6 committee in June, the Washington Post described. For her community testimony, Passantino was replaced with legal professional Jody Hunt of Alston & Chook, Politico reported.
Resources explained to CNN that Trump’s Help you save The usa PAC paid out for Passantino to depict Hutchinson by means of Passantino’s legislation company Elections LLC.
Passantino also denied he shared Hutchinson’s testimony with outside the house entities without having her permission and contended that it was normal for PACs to pay out shopper service fees “at the client’s request.”
Michael Greatest & Friedrich LLP, the law organization that shown Passantino as a associate, informed CNN it was not associated in the situation. In Passantino’s assertion, he claimed he made a decision to acquire a “depart of absence” from the organization, but would proceed working at Elections LLC.
The Jan. 6 committee, a consultant for Hutchinson, and Michael Finest & Friedrich, LLC did not straight away reply to Insider’s request for comment.
