Not a recommended deposition tactic.

During the final public hearing of the January 6 Select Committee on Monday, Rep. Zoe Lofgren described possible witness tampering in an attempt to obstruct the committee’s work, including a lawyer who instructed his client that “I don’t recall” was a perfectly acceptable answer to give in sworn testimony, even if the client recollected perfectly well the answer to the question. She also described this attorney as being compensated by allies of the former president.

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This was pretty clearly a reference to Mark Meadows’s former aide Cassidy Hutchinson, particularly in light of the Executive Summary of the committee’s final report, which contained extensive details about the witness, and quoted her saying, “What they said to me is, as long as I continue to be a team player, they know that I am on the right team. I am doing the right thing. I am protecting who I need to protect. You know, I will continue to stay in good graces in Trump World. And they have reminded me a couple of times that Trump does read transcripts and just keep that in mind as I proceed through my interviews with the committee.”

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Hutchinson famously fired Stefan Passantino, the former Trump White House Ethics lawyer (fire the writers!) who fought to shield Trump’s tax returns from Congress and Manhattan prosecutors. He also represented the Trump Organization and the Trump campaign. After she hired Jody Hunt, the former head of the DOJ’s civil division, who unlike Passantino was not being paid by Donald Trump’s PAC, Hutchinson testified again with significantly more candor. The above quote was released in June, the same week Hutchinson gave her blockbuster testimony, when Rep. Liz Cheney was making ominous references to possible attempts by Team Trump to influence witnesses.

Last night, CNN confirmed that Hutchinson was indeed the witness Lofgren was referring to, which means that the lawyer described in the Executive Summary is Stefan Passantino, who may be in a wee spot of bother.

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Because telling your client “They don’t know what you know, Cass. 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,” is not entirely consistent with any state’s canon of legal ethics. Allegedly!

Ditto for instructing the client to curtail her testimony about topics harmful to Trump, sharing her testimony with other witnesses and their lawyers over her objection, and refusing when asked to tell her who was footing the bill for her legal fees.

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Passantino vehemently denies the allegations, telling CNN, “I represented Ms. Hutchinson honorably, ethically, and fully consistent with her sole interests as she communicated them to me. I believed Ms. Hutchinson was being truthful and cooperative with the Committee throughout the several interview sessions in which I represented her.”

The committee says it has referred this and other attempts to obstruct its investigation to the Justice Department. But even if the DOJ declines to prosecute, it’s still a very bad look for a member of the bar. Indeed, “given the distraction of this matter” Passantino abruptly resigned from his position at Michael Best, which immediately disappeared his bio from its website.

And if you say you don’t recall something, it means it never happened, right?

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Exclusive: Trump’s former White House ethics lawyer told Cassidy Hutchinson to give misleading testimony to January 6 committee, sources say [CNN]

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Liz Dye lives in Baltimore where she writes about law and politics.

Topics

Capitol riot, Cassidy Hutchinson, Government, January 6th Committee, Jody Hunt, Legal Ethics, Stefan Passantino