told her we don t want to go there. we don t want to talk about that. that is all according to the committee which spoke to cassidy hutchinson many times. they never reached out to passantino. he has also not been charged with any crime. but he did provide us with a statement today, pushing back on. this he was saying he represented cassidy hutchinson ethically, that she was truthful with the committee whenever he was shepherding her through testimony. he also said he is taking a leave of absence from a corporate law firm where he is a partner. but all of this matters now, john, because the committee flagged this instance, among other things for the justice department when they release that summary yesterday, and previously. and we do know now, we can confirm that cassidy hutchinson spoke to criminal investigators about this episode. and of course maybe an important witness for federal investigators that continue to look into january 6th. and this is just one of several instances in
reporting. who is the person at the center of all this? this comes from myself, pamela brown, jamie gangel. this is about a lawyer his work for cassidy hutchinson passantino was an ethics lawyer in donald trump s white house. then he started a political law firm. that firm has been paid hundreds of thousands of dollars this year alone by donald trump s political fundraising groups. and that included, we were able to confirm, payments for passantino repliresent cassidy hutchinson. she got a new lawyer, but became the star witness. now the house is publicly raising concerns about that entire setup. they have other concerns too, john, this lawyer, and it s a long list. this lawyer was telling her not to recall facts she did recall, not to clarify testimony that she believed was inaccurate. and on something that would cast a bad light on donald trump, he
have a lawyer paid for. but if that lawyer is looking out for someone else instead of you, there is a potential conflict there. at least right. and it speaks to cassidy hutchinson s wisdom that she decided to switch lawyers, whether she was in fact being pressured or whether she felt like she was being pressured and that her interests weren t being represented. clearly when there is payment going on and someone is being paid by other than who their client, then you worry about the influence that the person who is paying the bills is perhaps influencing the conduct of the lawyer. that s not the way that it should work, but as a practical matter, i think we all know that it can. and so it speaks to her strength in having the wisdom as it sounds like olivia also advised some other folks. if you want to truly be independent and get legal advice that is specific to them and in their best interests, and in the interests of the truth, then they needed to retain their own
change hands, here it all. and i do think that sort of undermines the original claims from the chair. look, it s happening. it s happening in a few minutes, according to lauren fox on capitol hill, at least the summary. so we may know a lot more very soon. audi cornish, thanks very much. michael, thanks to you. we ll go straight back to capitol hill when that happens. just ahead, a cnn exclusive and an answer to an important allegation raised yesterday by the january 6th committee pertaining to cassidy hutchinson and her system. the committee has said an attorney and associate of former president trump had urged her to mislead the committee. we didn t know the name of that committee until just a short time ago. his name and the rather surprising position he once held at the white house, when 360 returns.