It’s been pointed out over and over again that Donald Trump didn’t get where he got alone. No, he had plenty of corrupt people helping him and covering his tracks every single step of the way. Political historian Heather Cox Richardson is reporting that part of the fallout following the conclusion of the January 6 Committee meetings on Monday, was the identification of a White House lawyer who crossed the line for Trump, as so many others before him did.
Also, sources have identified for CNN reporters Katelyn Polantz, Pamela Brown, Jamie Gangel, and Jeremy Herb the person to whom the committee referred as telling a witness to give misleading testimony. The person giving the advice was apparently Stefan Passantino, the top ethics lawyer for the Trump White House, and the person receiving it was top aide to Trump’s chief of staff Mark Meadows, Cassidy Hutchinson. By the time he was allegedly giving Hutchinson advice to protect Trump, Passantino was funded by Trump’s Save America political action committee.
Passantino denies the suggestion that he advised Hutchinson to mislead the committee, but he is on leave from the law firm where he was a partner, claiming that leave is because of “the distraction of this matter.” Los Angeles Times legal columnist Harry Litman tweeted that the accusation involving Passantino is “absolutely career ending if it pans out. Virtual instant [disbarment] and lucky if he stays out of jail.”
The accusations involving Stefan Passantino–that he advised Cassidy Hutchinson to say she did not recall when in fact she did — is absolutely career ending if it pans out. Virtual instant disarmament and lucky if he stays out of jail.
— Harry Litman (@harrylitman) December 20, 2022
Until my dying day, it will never cease to amaze me how many intelligent men and women broke every rule of both law and moral behavior in order to enable and protect the trust fund baby cum reality TV actor from his own excesses. Why? Does anybody know why?
Here is yet another potentially ruined career and for what? If the shoe was on the other foot, Trump wouldn’t lift a finger to cut anybody else a break. He’s got a P.T. Barnum mentality, that there’s only two kinds of people in the world, wolves and suckers and he’s not in the latter category.
I hope Passantino enjoys whatever his new career is.
Finally, Cox Richardson reminds us that Jack Smith requested that all of the January 6 Committee’s materials be forwarded to his office on December 5. He is working away, busier than any of Santa’s elves.
Good to know.
The ETHICS attorney? That’s rich. What goes on in law school to produce so many criminals that SHOULD know better? Perplexing. Of course, divinity schools turn out a number of grifters, hypocrites, and liars also. The difference is the law has guns & forces the rest of us to dance to whatever rules they make. The preachers just make promises about eternity. All they claim to have is God on their side. No guns. Not as effective.
I don’t know how it is in other states, but in MT attorneys must pass not only the bar exam but also an ethics exam before they can practice in the state. The ethics exam is an absolute joke so it is not having any impact at all on attorneys practicing in MT. I cannot and will not believe for one very, very, small fraction of a second ethics exams are much different in most and maybe all of the other states in the U.S.
you can always learn the right answers to pass an exam. abiding by the principles is a totally different matter.
“A man is usually more careful concerning his money than he is with his principles.”
Ralph Waldo Emerson
YEP, is a GOOD(sic) example of the blatant corruption going on in the RW “lawless & corrupted”, illegitimate party of the DAMNED!