During the hearing of Ms. Hutchinson, former White House aide Robert Passantino, the Senate Minority Causal Committee chairman

The episode is just one of several instances in which the committee has accused members of Trump’s orbit of trying to obstruct the panel’s investigation.

After the session, Passantino shared information from the interview with other Trump-aligned lawyers over Hutchinson’s objections, including Meadows’ attorneys George Terwilliger and John Moran, she testified. He also spoke with former Trump White House lawyer Eric Herschmann about the interview, Hutchinson said.

The congressman told CNN that she did not recall anything when she did, and that she was told to say that. So that’s pretty serious stuff.”

Hutchinson testified she turned to the former White House aide for advice after she realized she was hiding something from the committee. Hutchinson testified that she asked Griffin, now a CNN political analyst, to act as a backchannel to the committee so they could call her back in and know what questions to ask – without telling her lawyer.

It is not unusual for clients to change lawyers when their interests change. Sometimes a political committee will cover the client’s fees at the client’s request. External communications were made on behalf of Ms. Hutchinson while I was her counsel. The committee never contacted me to get the facts.

Mr. Passantino said he believed Ms. Hutchinson was being honest with the committee during several of her interview sessions.

A witness complains about a bad light on the judiciary: Ethics in the handoff of the committee’s investigation to the Justice Department

Then on Monday, in the executive summary of the final report, the committee revisited the issue in its handoff of the investigation to the Justice Department.

According to the summary, the witness raised concerns with her lawyer about that approach, and she was told they did not know what she knew. They don’t know that you can recall some of these things. You say ‘I don’t recall’ is an acceptable response to this.

“The lawyer instructed the client about a particular issue that would cast a bad light on President Trump: ‘No, no, no, no, no. We do not want to go there. We don’t want to talk about that,’” the report said.

At the committee’s final public hearing, Lofgren said she was concerned that the witnesses may have been trying to prevent the committee from finding the truth.

Conflicts of interest that could compromise their representation of a client are included in ethics guidelines for lawyers. If a lawyer is trying to sway a client’s testimony in a way that isn’t completely true, it could be considered obstruction of an investigation.

The January 6 and Mar-a-Lago investigation has caused the Save America campaign to make payments to several law firms. An issue only arises if the lawyer doesn’t follow the client’s wishes, legal experts and professional rules say.

Reply to the ‘Commission on Investigating the Investigation of Donald Trump’s Account of a Secret Service Explicit Action”

The committee was aware that the U.S. Department of Justice and the Fulton County District Attorney’s Office had already obtained information relevant to these matters. We urge the Department of Justice to look into the facts in order to decide if prosecution is justified.

She said, “I am indebted to these people and if I do anything I will ruin my life.”

CNN reported Tuesday that the committee was referring to Passantino when it described an unnamed lawyer telling a committee witness to say that she could not recall events that she knew in its summary released this week.

Hutchinson said that Passantino told her not to lie. “I want to make this clear to you: Stefan never told me to lie. I was told by him that he didn’t want me to perjure myself, but “I don’t recall”. She testified that they didn’t know she wanted to be able to and can’t recall.

He waived her away from discussing what she knew about Trump’s argument with his Secret Service detail in the presidential limousine on January 6, she told the committee. “I remember he, like, sat back in his chair and he’s like, ‘No, no, no, no, no. We do not want to go there. We don’t want to talk about that.’”

Everything is going to be fine. We’re taking care of you,” Hutchinson described Passantino as saying. “Just downplay your position. … It’s not fair that Mark [Meadows] put you in this position. We just want to focus on protecting the president. You are loyal to us and we know it. It will be easy when you get in and out, I promise.

In what she called “one thing I regret in all of this,” Hutchinson described begging her father, who she said she doesn’t have a relationship with, to lend her the money.

She said she was going to pay him back the interest he had paid. He didn’t get it. I did not think he would. I just left feeling defeated.

“He said something to the effect of, ‘Well, Mark wants me to let you know that he knows you’re loyal and he knows you’ll do the right thing tomorrow and that you’re going to protect him and the boss,’” Williamson told her, according to Hutchinson’s testimony.

“Cassidy Hutchinson is a patriot who bravely upheld the oath she swore when she took a job in the White House. I am grateful for her willingness to share her truth with the American public.

“This was like the first clear indicator for me of he doesn’t care about what I want, he doesn’t care about what I think is best for me, he’s doing what he thinks is best for Trump and the people in Trump’s orbit,” she said.

Source: https://www.cnn.com/2022/12/22/politics/cassidy-hutchinson-jan-6-testimony-trump-pressure/index.html

Hutchinson was not afraid to testify again, but she had a moment to talk with Passantino before a meeting with the committee

The committee suggested it might want Hutchinson to testify again in a classified setting, and he asked Passantino if she had heard about additional interviews.

“We really think this is what’s best for you, Cass. Like, this needs to end at some point, and I think it just needs to end now,” Passantino told her, according to her testimony.

“It was clear for a long time that he was not representing my interests in how he knew I wanted to facilitate my relationship with the committee,” she testified. “But I was not going to let this moment completely destroy my reputation, my character, and my integrity for a cause that I was starkly opposed to. And that’s pretty much the end of me and Stefan.”