NEUTRALIZATION ATTEMPT: MAGA lawmakers TARGET Cassidy Hutchinson
Having burned through the people with supposed evidence against the Bidens and several others, the House Oversight Subcommittee will now investigate Cassidy Hutchinson, former assistant to Mark Meadows, even though there is no evidence that she did anything wrong other than to relay truthful testimony that they don’t like.
Their stated reason is near-criminally ironic. They want to get to the bottom of why Hutchinson changed her recall and testimony regarding the days leading up to January 6th.
The trouble for the Subcommittee is that Hutchinson has already answered the question, and her explanation is both simple, easily understood, and damning.
Her testimony changed when she rejected Stefan Passantino, the lawyer provided by Trump and MAGA, and got her own attorney, who advised her to tell the truth and kept her out of traps.
But there is something even more sinister likely swimming below the announcement’s surface.
Rep. Barry Loudermilk (R-GA), who leads the subcommittee, believes that Cassidy Hutchinson waived her attorney-client privilege either expressly in writing or implicitly in speaking to the Committee about the switch.
You will recall that Loudermilk is one of the House members who is suspected of playing some role in covering for Trump. He is the guy who was giving unauthorized tours of the Capitol in the days before January 6th.
If the assertion is true (and it likely will be litigated first) and Hutchinson did waive her attorney-client privilege, the subcommittee can call her and her original attorney (the MAGA-friendly attorney) in for questioning. They could perhaps also use her MAGA attorney to either buff up his story (“I never told her to… “) or bury him for some unknown reason.
Our brothers at Meidas Touch have a fantastic paragraph describing the dynamic:
“Loudermilk now states that he intends to bring [Stefan] Passantino in to find out the details of his representation of Hutchinson. He asserts that her waiver of attorney-client privilege allows the Committee to do this. However, Passantino was very fortunate to avoid any ethics charges, criminal charges for obstruction, or disbarment resulting from Hutchinson’s allegations. It is likely that the last thing he wants to do is dredge this up again and make himself subject to cross examination under other by the Committees’ outstanding group of Democratic Members. He may even assert his 5th Amendment privilege to avoid doing so.”
It is easy to see why they want to pick Cassidy Hutchinson apart even though she is more than capable as an adversary, can handle the pressure, and could turn the tables on the subcommittee somehow.
It is far more difficult to analyze why they want to interrogate Passantino. It could be as simple as attempting to get him to state under oath that Hutchinson is lying.
This brings in the 5th Amendment argument because it’s more likely than not that Passantino was Hutchinson’s attorney precisely because he would encourage her to use as many “I do not recalls” as possible, even when she recalled nearly everything.
Something changed. Perhaps Hutchinson feared that if the entire castle toppled and White House personnel were being arrested all over and back, she might face perjury charges, or perhaps her conscience just wouldn’t allow her to have lies sitting there on paper.
We can’t know. And the hope should be we don’t ever know because it could only come from Laudermilk’s questioning, searching for any faux issue that will get his head on Fox News to stir up hate.
They may believe they can catch Hutchinson in a lie — which would help Trump in his upcoming DC trial.
Hutchinson will be one of the top prosecution witnesses.
Ultimately, though, the GOP often doesn’t need a real reason or real plan. If Loudermilk can raise issues about Hutchinson, it could distract the public, make her testimony even more controversial, and be a warning to others who might come forward.
They punish some of the best people.
This report borrows ideas originally explored by Ron Filipkowski of Meidas Touch.
I can be reached at jasonmiciak@gmail.com and on “X” @JasonMiciak.
Editor’s note: This is an opinion column that solely reflects the opinions of the author
