Jan 6 Committee: Former Trump White House Aide Cassidy Hutchinson Says She Was Pressured By Trump Allies

During her interview with the Jan. 6 committee, former White House aide Cassidy Hutchinson told them about being pressurized by former President Donald Trump’s allies.

Their aim was to influence her cooperation with Congress and suppress potentially damaging testimony about Trump, reported the Associated Press. Her closed-door testimony was made public Thursday. In that, Hutchinson recounted how people in Trump's circle dangled job opportunities and financial assistance as she was cooperating with the panel that's investigating the Jan. 6, 2021 Capitol riot.

Her first attorney, Stefan Passantino, was paid through allies of Trump. He told her to stop cooperating with the Jan. 6 committee. She said that she felt she had no other option but to retain Passantino because she couldn’t afford to pay high costs of other lawyers whom she contacted to represent her, reported CNN. She said that she was "completely indebted to these people, and I was like, ‘And they will ruin my life, Mom, if I do anything they don’t want me to do.’” Hutchinson, a former aide to White House chief of staff Mark Meadows, said to her mother in the days leading up to her first interview with the panel in February.

She told the committee that Passantino repeatedly told her to downplay her role in the White House. He told her to say that she did not recall events before the riot. She shared that her “breaking point” with Passantino came in June when he advised her not to speak to the committee any more. He told her that risking “contempt is a small risk, but running to the right is better for you."

A friend of Hutchinson said that Hutchinson had long been concerned with Passantino’s advice. But the suggestion that she risk the contempt charge created a sense of urgency for her. She expressed to her friend that there was more that she wanted to share, but her lawyer was urging her not to.

The Jan. 6 committee released two never-before-seen transcripts of Hutchinson’s testimony. This comes as it tries to wrap up its investigation and make its work public. She went public about Trump’s actions on Jan. 6, 2021 in a televised hearing in June. Hutchinson described his directive that magnetometers be removed from a rally of his supporters on Jan. 6, 2021. She detailed his angry demands to be taken by the Secret Service to the Capitol to join his supporters who were trying to disrupt the congressional certification of Joe Biden’s election as the U.S. President.