Washington
CNN
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The Jan. 6 committee made a startling allegation on Monday, saying it had evidence that a Trump-backed lawyer urged a key witness to mislead the committee about details he remembered.
Although the committee declined to identify the individuals, CNN has learned that Stefan Passantino, Trump’s top White House ethics counsel, is the attorney who allegedly advised his then-client, the Former White House aide Cassidy Hutchinson to tell the committee she didn’t remember details she had, sources familiar with the committee’s work told CNN.
Trump’s Save America political action committee funded Passantino and his law firm Elections LLC, including paying for his representation of Hutchinson, other sources told CNN. The committee report notes that the attorney did not tell his client who was paying for the legal services.
Over the summer, Hutchinson became a best-selling witness for the committee, providing key insight into Trump’s mindset and actions leading up to the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol. Prior to his public testimony, Hutchinson dropped Passantino and found a new attorney.
Asked about the pressure put on Hutchinson after Monday’s hearing, committee member Representative Zoe Lofgren told CNN: ‘She was advised to say she didn’t remember something when she told it. do. So these are pretty serious things.
The episode is just one of many instances in which the committee has accused members of Trump’s orbit of trying to obstruct the panel’s investigation.
Two sources familiar with the situation told CNN that Hutchinson had discussed the episode with the Department of Justice. CNN previously reported that Hutchinson was cooperating with the Justice Department’s Jan. 6 investigation, after she became a crucial public witness in the House investigation.
CNN has reached out to the Justice Department for comment.
Passantino has not been charged with a crime. He said House investigators never contacted him for an interview.
In a statement to CNN, Passantino said he did not advise Hutchinson to mislead the committee. “I have represented Ms. Hutchinson in a manner that is honourable, ethical and fully consistent with her sole interests as communicated to me. I thought Ms. Hutchinson was honest and cooperative with the Committee throughout the many interview sessions in which I represented her.
Passantino pointed out that it’s not uncommon for people to change lawyers “because their interests or strategies change,” according to his statement. He also said political committees sometimes cover client fees “at the request of the client”.
In response to a committee accusation that he also shared his testimony with other lawyers and the press even when told not to, he said: ‘External communications made on behalf of Ms Hutchinson while I was his attorney were made with his express permission.”
On Tuesday, Passantino’s professional biography had been removed from the website of a Midwest-based law firm where he was a partner – and he acknowledged in his statement that he was on leave from the firm “given the distraction of this case. That company, Michael Best & Friedrich LLP, said Tuesday it was not involved in the situation and that Hutchinson was not a customer.
Passantino said he remains a partner at Elections LLC.
The Jan. 6 House committee during summer hearings said it was concerned about potential witness tampering. CNN reported that the witness was Hutchinson.
The committee summary said the panel “is aware of President Trump’s multiple efforts to contact select committee witnesses. The Department of Justice is aware of at least one of these circumstances.
Then on Monday, in the executive summary of the final report, the committee revisited the issue in its transfer of the investigation to the Department of Justice.
According to the report, “the lawyer had informed the witness that the witness could, in certain circumstances, tell the Committee that he did not remember the facts when he did remember them”.
“When the witness raised concerns with his attorney about this approach,” according to the summary, the attorney said, “They don’t know what you know, [witness]. They don’t know that you can remember some of these things. So saying “I don’t remember” is a perfectly acceptable response to that. »
“The attorney advised the client of a particular issue that would cast a bad light on President Trump: ‘No, no, no, no, no. We don’t want to go there. We don’t want to talk about it,” the report said.
At the committee’s final open hearing, Lofgren said, “The witness believed this was an effort to affect his testimony, and we are concerned that these efforts may have been a strategy to prevent the committee from uncovering the truth.”
Lawyers must follow detailed ethical guidelines in their practice, including avoiding conflicts of interest that could compromise their representation of a client. According to legal ethics experts, a lawyer influencing his client’s testimony in a way that is not entirely truthful could be seen as possible obstruction of an investigation.
Elections LLC, a political law firm that Passantino and other Trump attorneys founded after he left the Trump White House, has received regular payments from Save America PAC and other Trump-backed groups, the documents show. filed by the FEC. Save America PAC distributions to the firm for legal advice total more than $150,000 in 2021 and approximately $275,000 in 2022. The firm has also worked for major Republican congressional campaigns.
This year, Trump’s Save America PAC made payments to several law firms representing witnesses in the Jan. 6 and Mar-a-Lago investigation. A problem only arises if the lawyer does not follow the wishes of the client, say legal experts and professional rules.
The committee, in its Monday summary, gave several other examples of “evidence suggesting specific efforts to impede” their work. They noted Trump’s efforts to contact some witnesses, as well as several Secret Service agents hiring private attorneys rather than attorneys provided by agencies who would represent them for free. The attorney for a Secret Service driver admitted to writing notes to the driver during his testimony about what was being said, according to the committee.
The committee also said it believed some witnesses, such as Trump’s former White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany and the former president’s daughter, Ivanka Trump, were not so “outspoken.” or direct” than others.
The report also says the committee believes White House staffer Anthony Ornato “gave testimony consistent with the false narrative” in a book written by Mark Meadows, downplaying Trump’s wish to go to court. Capitol on January 6.
The committee says it plans to release transcripts that will further shed light on the testimony they found questionable.
In its summary on Monday, the committee gave several other examples of “evidence suggesting specific efforts to impede” their work. They noted Trump’s efforts to contact some witnesses, as well as several Secret Service agents hiring private attorneys rather than attorneys provided by agencies who would represent them for free. The attorney for a Secret Service driver admitted to writing notes to the driver during his testimony about what was being said, according to the committee.
The committee also said it believed some witnesses, such as Trump’s former White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany and the former president’s daughter, Ivanka Trump, were not so “outspoken.” or direct” than others.
The report also says the committee believes White House staffer Anthony Ornato “gave testimony consistent with the false narrative” in a book written by Mark Meadows, downplaying Trump’s wish to go to court. Capitol on January 6.
The committee says it plans to release transcripts that will further shed light on the testimony they found questionable.
This story has been updated with other potential examples of obstruction identified by the committee.
