- Cassidy Hutchinson described in raw detail why she decided to come clean to the Jan. 6 committee.
- Hutchinson told the panel that her Trump-aligned lawyer advised her to mislead lawmakers.
- Ultimately, she said that she wanted to prove her loyalty was to the truth.
New transcripts released by the House January 6 committee on Thursday show how one key witness was pressured by her counsel to mislead the panel before flipping against President Donald Trump and his allies.
The witness, Cassidy Hutchinson, who served as a top aide to White House chief of staff Mark Meadows, testified to the committee that her Trump-aligned lawyer repeatedly urged her to “downplay” her role in the Trump White House and told her”we just want to focus on protecting the president.”
But as their attorney-client relationship developed, Hutchinson said, she became increasingly uneasy with Stefan Passantino, a former top ethics lawyer in the Trump White House, advice until finally she decided to fire him and tell the committee what she knew.
According to transcripts, Hutchinson, even admitted that she initially lied to the committee about whether she had heard Trump lunge at a Secret Service agent after being told he could not go to the Capitol on January 6.
The transcripts, released Thursday, illustrate in detail Hutchinson’s transformation from combative former aide to star witness whose testimony painted a damning portrait of Trump’s final months in office.
No matter how hard she tried, Hutchinson couldn’t escape Trump’s orbit.
In a September deposition, Hutchinson told lawmakers how uncomfortable she felt after her first interview with the committee in February, during which she followed Passantino’s counsel despite disagreeing with his strategy of downplaying virtually everything.
“”Look, we want to get you in, get you out,” Hutchinson said Passantino told her before the appearance. “We’re going to downplay your role. You were a secretary. You had an administrative role.”
Hutchinson both in this instance and many others described Trump-aligned figures as speaking in plural pronouns. Often, she said it is not specified who “we” or “everyone” is. It was clear though that the former president was never far from mind.
“To be completely frank, I was extremely nervous going into the first interview, for
a multitude of reasons. You know, I felt like – I almost felt like at points Donald Trump was looking over my shoulder,” Hutchinson later said.
Sometimes the subtleties would drop completely and it was made abundantly clear who was watching.
“‘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,'” Hutchinson told the…
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