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- Former White House aide Cassidy Hutchinson testified she was “scared” about getting a lawyer from Trump world.
- Hutchinson told the January 6 committee she contacted family she didn’t even speak to to get help.
- She said her Trump-connected lawyer had encouraged her to withhold information from the committee.
Cassidy Hutchinson, a former White House aide who provided key testimony to the January 6 committee, said even her aunt and uncle who she hadn’t spoken to in years were considering going to great lengths to help her stay out of the orbit of former President Donald Trump.
Hutchinson described the situation in testimony she gave on September 14, a transcript of which was released by the committee on Thursday. She was discussing her efforts to secure legal representation after she was subpoenaed by the committee, and her desire to avoid going with a Trump-aligned lawyer.
Hutchinson said that she told her mother she thought she was “fucked” after she secured Stefan Passantino as her lawyer, saying that “once you are lopped in” to Trump world, “especially financially,” there is “no turning back.”
“‘They will ruin my life, Mom, if I do anything that they don’t want me to do,'” Hutchinson recounted saying at the time.
She said she was so “scared” and desperate to seek legal representation that did not have connections to Trump she reached out to family she wasn’t close to.
“I was communicating with my aunt and uncle, who I had not spoken with in years because they are QAnon fans, but they were looking to refinancing their house to free up money so I could not have to go back to Trump world,” Hutchinson testified, adding “they understood why I didn’t want to.”
Hutchinson said she also visited her biological father, who she does not have a relationship with and who is a “very big Trump supporter,” to seek help. But she said, “he just didn’t get it.”
In her testimony, Hutchinson said Passantino pressured her to withhold information from the committee, and that others connected to Trump dangled the possibility of a job over her.
Passantino denied the allegations, in a statement previously sent to Insider, and claimed the committee did not contact him “to get the facts.”
“As with all my clients during my 30 years of practice, I represented Ms. Hutchinson honorably, ethically, and fully consistent with her sole interests as she communicated them to me,” Passantino told Insider earlier this week. “I believed Ms. Hutchinson was being truthful and cooperative with the Committee throughout the several interview sessions in which I represented her.”
Hutchinson was eventually represented by Bill Jordan and Jody Hunt of Alston & Bird.
