A Trump-allied attorney who previously represented a key January 6 witness urged her to mislead the January 6 committee about details she recalled, according to CNN.
The committee did not identify the witness or the person they claimed tried to influence the testimony, but CNN reported that Stefan Passantino, the top ethics attorney in the Trump White House who represented former aide Cassidy Hutchinson, was the lawyer.
Passantino advised Hutchinson, an aide to former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows, to tell the committee that she did not recall details that she did, sources told CNN.
The committee suggested that people connected to the former president had attempted to influence at least one witness' testimony, promising her jobs that never materialized and coaching her to make statements in an attempt to deceive the committee.
Passantino and his law firm Elections LLC were funded by Trump's Save America political action committee. The PAC also paid for the lawyer's representation of Hutchinson, which Passantino did not mention to his client, sources told CNN.
Over the summer, Hutchinson emerged as a key witness for the committee, providing bombshell testimony into Trump's knowledge of the potential for violence on Jan. 6, and his outbursts of anger. Before her public testimony, she dropped Passantino and got a new lawyer.
"I represented Ms. Hutchinson honorably, ethically, and fully consistent with her sole interests as she communicated them to me," Passantino told CNN. "I believed Ms. Hutchinson was being truthful and cooperative with the Committee throughout the several interview sessions in which I represented her."
He added that it's not uncommon for people to change lawyers due to their interests or strategies shifting. Passantino also said political committees sometimes cover client fees "at the client's request."
Earlier this week, his professional biography was removed from the law firm's website where he was a partner. Passantino said he was taking a leave of absence from his firm "given the distraction of this matter," according to CNN.
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In hearings over the summer, the Jan. 6 committee said it was concerned about potential witness tampering and said the "Department of Justice is aware of at least one of those circumstances."
CNN and The New York Times have reported that the witness was Hutchinson.
The committee's latest report reveals that a lawyer had advised a client, believed to be Hutchinson, to pretend that she could not recall certain facts.
"The lawyer had advised the witness that the witness could, in certain circumstances, tell the Committee that she did not recall facts when she actually did recall them," the report said.
When the witness expressed concerns to her lawyer about an aspect of her testimony not being truthful, the lawyer did not advise her to clarify the specific testimony, the report says. Instead, the lawyer said "they don't know what you know, [witness]. They don't know that you can recall some of these things. So you saying 'I don't recall' is an entirely acceptable response to this."
The lawyer also told the client to avoid discussing facts that portrayed Trump in a negative light.
"The lawyer instructed the client about 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 that,'" the report said.
Committee member Rep. Zoe Lofgren, D-Calif., said the "witness believed this was an effort to affect her testimony, and we are concerned that these efforts may have been a strategy to prevent the Committee from finding the truth."
Legal expert Elliot Williams told CNN that Passantino's actions are "bordering on a federal offense"
"If you are urging someone to say they don't recall a fact that they, in fact, recall, you're telling them to lie under oath. So he could be prosecuted under that," Williams said.
Former FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe also said that Passantino could be in serious trouble.
"Of course, a potential violation of the attorney code of ethics. Ironic that he's a former White House ethics lawyer," McCabe said. "But people were taken aback when they learned that the Trump PACs were paying for the representation of witnesses. That's not a violation of the ethics laws, but it is, when that attorney starts to advise the client, in a way to protect the payer's interest and not the client's interest. That may be what we're seeing here."
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