A onetime lawyer for Cassidy Hutchinson, the former White House aide who turned key witness for the Jan. 6 House committee, said he was taking a leave of absence from his law firm on Tuesday after he said the panel falsely accused him of attempting to obstruct their investigation. In an executive summary of its findings released Monday, the Jan. 6 committee claimed that a Trump-backed lawyer advised a witness to testify “she did not recall facts when she actually did recall them,” telling her “[we] don’t want to talk about” an issue that might “cast a bad light” on the former president. The committee did not identify either the witness or her lawyer, but sources told CNN on Tuesday that the attorney in question was Stefan Passantino, who served as Hutchinson’s lawyer until she dumped him ahead of her public testimony. The insiders also said Trump’s Save America PAC funded Passantino and his firm, Elections LLC, and paid for him to represent Hutchinson. In a statement, Passantino, who worked in the White House Counsel’s Office during the Trump administration, told CNN he didn’t advise Hutchinson to deceive the committee, and represented her “honorably” and “ethically.” He said he was taking a leave of absence from Michael Best & Friedrich LLP, where he said he remains a partner, “given the distraction of this matter.”
