Stefan Passantino, a former Trump White House attorney, is suing the House Jan. 6 Committee over accusations that the committee ruined his reputation and caused serious financial and emotional distress.
Passantino represented committee witness Cassidy Hutchinson, who claimed that the attorney pressured her to mislead in testimony. This information was then leaked to the news media.
His new suit accuses the House committee of causing him financial strain, including “loss of past and future earnings and/or revenue” including attorney fees and court costs.
Passantino is seeking damages “including but not limited to lost past and future earnings/revenue” as well as emotional distress and court expenses linked to “defending against the invasion of privacy” and false accusations.
The total amount of the suit is $67 million.
The attorney accused the committee of contacting Hutchinson with “total disregard for the attorney-client relationship and Committee Member and staff’s own ethical obligations.”
He said that without contacting him, the committee “through its members or staff or both,” leaked the accusations to CNN “and possibly other news media.”
Cassidy Hutchinson was part of the act and Liz Cheney should face serious criminal charges.
The J6 Witch Hunt Committee and their propagandists in the media peddled the huge myth that Cassidy Hutchinson was being “pressured” by her attorney Stefan Passantino to support Trump.…
— Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene🇺🇸 (@RepMTG) April 11, 2023
He said that the leaks were “wholly outside the Committee’s constitutional and legal jurisdiction.”
The leaks resulted in “serious personal damage to Mr. Passantino,” he wrote. This included leaving one of his law firms and suffering damage to his reputation and emotional state.
The attorney alleges that the members of the committee then harmed his reputation without any effort to “verify the truth.”
Passantino says that this was done “in support of a political narrative about President Donald J. Trump and the lawyers perceived to be working for him.”
Hutchinson asked the Save America PAC, tied to President Trump, for assistance paying for representation in her subpoena before the Jan. 6 committee. Hutchinson later changed attorneys in June 2022.
Pasantino strongly denies accusations that he pressured the witness into lying and that the leak was “unjustifiable, outrageous, and malicious.”
This claim comes as the work of the Jan. 6 committee comes under increased scrutiny since House Speaker Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) released thousands of hours of footage from the day to Fox News host Tucker Carlson.
The revelation of the events at the Capitol reshaped much of the media narrative regarding the day.
