In a lengthy profile in the New York times, former Trump Chief of Staff,
Mark Meadows Aide, Cassidy Hutchinson.
Apparently dealt with some Trump administration officials,
people in Trump's orbit.
It's kind of unclear, essentially trying to intimidate her prior
to her fourth day of depositions in the January, 6 investigation.
And we're learning more about what's been going on behind the scenes,
not only in regard to the intimidation tactics used against her.
but more importantly,
how she has switched lawyers in the middle of this investigation to essentially have
a person representing her who wants to get information to the January, 6 panel.
So let's give you those details.
So apparently a day before Cassidy Hutchinson was supposed to give her
fourth day of depositions.
A former Trump White House aide hit her up and gave her a message.
A person, let me know you have your deposition tomorrow.
He wants me to let you know he's thinking about you, he knows you're loyal and
you're going to do the right thing when you go in for your deposition.
That was the message that was given to Cassidy Hutchinson,
who is by all means a right wing republican.
She's worked for Ted Cruz, she was a top aide for Mark Meadows, and
we'll get into more details about her past, but
they had reason to think that she would be loyal, right?
So during the first impeachment of Trump back in 2019,
Hutchinson was among a handful of legislative affairs staff members task was
shoring up support among disgruntled house Republicans for the embattled president.
In the end, not one of them defected a triumph that reflected well on every
White House staff member involved, including Hutchinson.
So she carried water for Trump.
Okay, she rallied the troops for Trump to provide cover for
Trump during his first impeachment in 2019.
And I've got a lot more details to get to, but before I do think,
why don't you jump in?
>> Yeah, so what I got out of that piece was unfortunately that we were right that
the person who effectively brought her forward was Liz Cheney.
Look, you leave it to Democrats and it's gonna get bungled.
So she's the one that engineered this.
And as I'm going to tell you there was critical realizations that
Cassidy Hutchinson had about her own lawyers, etcetera.
And that witness tampering that she just told you about is very
important because it's a clearer charge, it's easier to prove.
And so far, prosecutors have been absolute cowards in how they have dealt
with Donald Trump every one of them.
So charging them with seditious conspiracy,
they're gonna be, that's so scary, what if republicans yell at me,
but witness tampering is easy and fairly straightforward to prove.
So that might be the thing that they get them on.
That's why that's also important, and
of course how right wing Cassidy Hutchinson is relevant because not only it
gives her more credibility, but it also starts to split the Republican party.
A lot of republicans after she testified were like, no, she's one of us.
Yeah, I believe her.
>> In fact, the way that she handled the 2019 Trump impeachment,
that was the first impeachment effort.
Was so impressive for
Mark Meadows that he promptly poached her from the Legislative Affairs Office
as a special assistant once he was named White House Chief of Staff.
So that's relevant in proving just how conservative and right wing she is,
even as those in Trump's orbit now attack her for being anything but
right because they want to do away with her credibility on the matter.
So after there was some witness tampering going on,
here's what we know about how the January six select committee handled it.
At Hutchinson's deposition the next day,
committee members investigating the attack on the capitol were so
alarmed by what they considered a clear case of witness tampering...
That they decided in a meeting on June 24, a Friday to hold an emergency public
hearing with Hutchinson as a surprise witness the following Tuesday.
And that's when we heard some bombshell testimony,
including Trump's unwillingness to intervene as capitol rioters were making
their way to the capital while threatening the life of his vice president Mike Pence.
If you don't remember that testimony, here's what it sounded like.
>> I remember Pat saying something to the effect of Mark we need to do something
more, they're literally calling for the vice president the effing hung and
Mark had responded something to the effect of you heard him, Pat,
he thinks mike deserves that.
He doesn't think they're doing anything wrong.
>> So look, that was just one piece of testimony that did not look good for
Trump didn't bode well for Trump, which is why they're trying to discredit her now.
But what's also interesting is how she changed counsel in the middle of this
investigation.
So let's get to that, Hutchinson hired as her first lawyer,
Stefan Passantino, a former Trump White House ethics lawyer.
Trump's save America PAC paid for his representation of Hutchinson,
as it did for some other witnesses called before the panel...
Federal Election Commission reports show that Passantino knows legal
compliance firm received more than $1 million from the trump related
political action committees in the 2021-2022 election cycle.
But she noticed that he was standing in the way of her getting relevant
information to the select committee, right?
So she's like why are you, you're serving as an obstacle.
I'm just trying to be as honest and forthcoming as I can be.
So in the middle she decided to switch counsel,
she started working with former Republican congresswoman.
And Trump critic Barbara Comstock who even though she's a Trump critic,
she's very much a Republican and she offered to start a legal defense fund.
So that Hutchinson would not have to rely on a lawyer paid for by Trump affiliates.
But this proved unnecessary, Jody Hunt,
the former head of the Justice Department's civil division
under Jeff sessions offered to represent her pro bono.
Hunt accompanied Hutchinson to her fourth deposition in late June,
when she felt more comfortable talking about Trump's actions on January 6th.
So look, we would often talk about how Trump would burn bridges and
it seemed to never come back to bite him in the ass this is an example
of it coming back to bite him in the ass.
He was constantly attacking Jeff sessions.
We're talking about Jody Hunt, the former head of the Justice Department's civil
division under Jeff sessions.
And Jody Hunts here now to provide a pro bono legal counsel to
Hutchinson in this investigation.
>> I'm very disappointed in my Attorney General
>> as disappointed as you want.
It's coming back to bite you in the butt.
>> Yep, alright, so last things here for me are the lord change obviously made
a huge difference because they were doing a mob move.
The mob does this very literally, so a lower level captain doesn't have enough
money to be able to the lowest level against the street guys.
They don't have enough money, so the mob boss provides the lawyer, but
in return obviously you're not going to turn on the mob if you do the lawyers,
the one that rats you out to the mob.
So they're not representing you, they're representing the criminal organization and
that's what happened basically with Hutchinson here and
Trump's criminal organization.
And it was really smart of them to get her to testify quickly because they
were worried about leaks, and they were very right to worry about that.
And they were worried that the Republicans are gonna put so
much pressure on her that she's going to re flip right and hide the truth.
So I hate to say it,
but great job by Liz Cheney to make that happen as quickly as possible.
>> I mean, Republicans are sharks and usually it works against us.
But Donald Trump has gone so far.
That Liz Cheney who's an awful person and
pretty much every issue imaginable ends up being an important ally in
trying to ensure that justice is served on this issue.
I mean, she's doing her best, we still don't know if justice will be
served because still no word from Merrick Garland, the Attorney General.
Yeah, the Attorney General in regard to whether or
not Trump will be facing criminal charges for his role in this.
>> Yeah, and there's a difference between style and substance,
substance was changing and everything else is awful.
But her style is that of a shark, which is the Republicans and
the Democrats are all pussycats, right?
Unless they're fighting progressives and all of a sudden they turn into lions.
But having a couple of sharks on our side, especially in something this important is
really important because if you just leave it to the Democrats to protect democracy,
we're all screwed.
>> I mean, we're seeing that happen in real time right now.
>> Yeah, so, and I hate saying this, but thank God for a couple of principle,
decent Republicans mainly Cassidy Hutchinson in this case saying, look,
I signed up to do terrible right wing things.
I didn't sign up to end democracy.