Will it change anything?
And whose responsibility is it
to fix this?
We have a lot to talk about
tonight.
But let's start with the new
transcripts from the January 6th
committee and CNN's justice
correspondent Jessica Schneider.
Tell us what's in these, Jess.
>> Reporter: Alisyn, there are a
lot of new details here.
Particularly because one of he
these new transcripts is Cassidy
Hutchinson's final deposition
from June 2022 that was actually
right after she had fired her
trump world attorney and her new
attorney was letting her correct
the record and really tell every
truth to the committee.
So first off she told the
committee that she saw mark
meadows burning documents in his
office fireplace around a dozen
times, which she guessed
amounted to about once or twice
a week, all between December
2020 and January 2021.
And he she says at least twice
she saw mark meadows burning
documents after he met with
Republican congressman Scott
Perry.
Perry, meanwhile, he'd been
subpoenaed by the committee but
he never complied.
Then there's another account
that Hutchinson says mark
meadows actually told white
house staffers during the
transition that they should keep
a close hold on their meeting.
She says he put it this way.
"I remember him having a meeting
with oval office saying let's
keep some meetings close hold.
We will talk about what that
means but for now we will keep
things real tight and private so
things don't start to leak out."
And Hutchinson expanded upon
that.
She said that these meetings
were essentially kept off the
books.
They were out of the oval office
diary.
Essentially, you know, there
would be no record of these
meetings.
So Alisyn, between this detail
and also Hutchinson observing
meadows burning documents a lot
of questions, a lot more tonight
now that this transcript is out,
about what exactly meadows was
trying to hide and Alisyn,
really who he might be trying to
protect.
>> Those are excellent
questions.
Also, how about all this qanon
stuff that has come out?
I mean, how much qanon crazy
talk there was in the white
house around the president.
>> Reporter: It seems like there
was a lot because Hutchinson,
she talks about these multiple
conversations within the white
house where all these people
seem to endorse these qanon
conspiracy theories.
She said that mark meadows for
one brought it up.
Also congresswoman Marjorie
Taylor Greene made mention of
it.
And then she said she had this
exchange with the white house
trade adviser Peter Navarro.
She said, "At one point I had
sarcastically said, oh, is this
from your qanon friends, Peter?
Because Peter would talk to me
frequently about his qanon
friends.
And he said, have you looked
into it yet, Cass?
I think they point out a lot of
good ideas.
You really need to read this.
Make sure the chief sees it."
And then Hutchinson said she
later replied to the committee,
"I did not take this as
sarcasm."
Alisyn, Navarro has since been
indicted for refusing to comply
with subpoenas from the
committee.
But really Cassidy Hutchinson
here now that we have four
complete transcripts from her,
we are seeing a ton more details
revealed to the committee than
we really previously knew.
And that begs the question here,
she's cooperated with the
justice department.
You know, what might she lend to
their investigation and what
potential criminal charges based
on her accounts could that
potentially lead to?
That's something we're going to
really be keeping an eye on into
the new year, Alisyn.
>> Every new revelation contains
surprises.
Jessica, thank you very much for
all of that reporting.
I want to bring in now CNN legal
analyst norm Eisen,
counterterrorism analyst Phil
Mudd, political commentator
Maria Cardona, and Olivia troye,
former homeland security and
covid task force adviser to vice
president pence.
Great to see all of you tonight.
Norm, I'm no lawyer, but burning
documents in your office
fireplace doesn't sound that
great.
Burning dozens I think was the
word.
And so but of course it's hard
to know what mark meadows
burned.
So how legally damning?
>> Well, Alisyn, it's quite
legally damning when you're
looking at potential obstruction
of justice and you have these
bangs, these indicators of
trying to keep things secret.
It's not just burning the
documents.
A couple of those episodes were
after meadows met with
congressman Scott Perry.
We know he's in the justice
department bullseye, Alisyn.
They seized his phone.
That's another bad sign.
And then there's keeping the
meetings secret, keeping them on
the Q.T.
So there's a lot of evidence
here that is troubling, and it
adds to the accumulation that
suggests crimes were committed.
Meadows is one of those doj is
making -- receiving criminal
referrals from the committee.
And now we know more why.
>> Olivia, it's interesting.
It came out tonight that Cassidy
Hutchinson wanted to clarify or
I guess expand on, elaborate on
her original testimony because
first she had a trump-supported,
trump-endorsed lawyer.
And then he she thought that she
was getting bad advice from that
lawyer who basically according
to reporting had told her to not
remember certain things.
So then she contacted the
committee and wanted to clarify
some things.
So here is this clarification.
So the committee asks her, "On
page 43, lines 9 through 11, you
were asked was there discussion
about it needing to happen, it
being the rally, before the
joint session started at 1:00
P.M. On January the 6th.
You said then, not to my
recollection right now.
You want to clarify that."
Miss Hutchinson says, "After
reviewing my transcripts and
thinking further into this
moment, I do recall
conversations about having the
rally prior to congress
convening on January 6th to
certify the results of the
election."
The committee asks, "Do you
remember why?"
Cassidy Hutchinson says, "At the
time I understood the reason to
be the president's desired
movement to the capitol as
congress convened that day."
And then Liz Cheney asks her
that the president wanted to be
at the capitol in time for the
joint session to convene?
And miss Hutchinson says,
"That's correct.
Or around."
And of course now we know what
happened at the capitol.
So having been in the
administration, what do you see
when you read through and hear
these transcripts?
>> I think Cassidy wanted to
tell the truth and she was being
sort of confined by these trump
people around her who were
basically sort of keeping her
from doing so.
And she felt that she needed to
come forward and really speak
truthfully about what had
happened here.
I think one of the more striking
things is that conversation that
she has with Peter Navarro.
And I just want to state this
because I actually personally
have had those types of
conversations with Peter Navarro
earlier in the year in 2020 in
regard to the covid pandemic and
the Q conspiracies he would
bring in trying to give them to
the vice president at the time.
And I used to intercept them and
I used to take the documents out
of his hand, believe it or not.
And he would say to me, but
Olivia, have you looked into
this?
Have you looked into
hydroxychloroquine, all these
things?
And I'd sit there and look at
him and I'd think like if this
actually comes out of the vice
president's mouth or we actually
send this out to the American
people you could kill thousands
of people.
A lot of these theories were
just flat out random false
conspiracies.
And to see Cassidy talk about
that and say this was a regular
occurrence where he would drop
these things and walk them in to
mark meadows during her tenure,
I can speak truthfully that I
dealt with that as well.
And I know because I remember
mark meadows walking some of
these theories in to the vice
president's office where I would
then have to counter the
situation.
And as you can imagine, as a
homeland security or covid task
force adviser at the time, this