Ex-Rep. Liz Cheney talked to Jan. 6 committee ‘star witness’ Cassidy Hutchinson behind lawyer’s back, damning texts show
Former Rep. Liz Cheney talked to the House January 6th Select Committee’s “star witness” behind her lawyer’s back, damning texts released by a congressional committee show, as part of an allegedly unethical move to have him replaced with handpicked attorneys more amenable to the committee’s perspective.
Cheney (R-Wyo.) interacted with the witness, former Donald Trump White House aide Cassidy Hutchinson, through ex-Trump strategic communications director Alyssa Farah Griffin — and later directly — in an effort to compel further testimony and have Hutchinson appear for a primetime televised hearing about the 45th president’s culpability for the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riot.
Though she worked behind the scenes to obtain Hutchinson’s juiciest allegations in 2022, some of which were later found to be false, Cheney never mentioned the backchannel talks with Hutchinson or Griffin in her book “Oath and Honor” about the riot.
House Administration Subcommittee on Oversight Chairman Barry Loudermilk (R-Ga.), who recently obtained the text messages from the trio, said the communications reveal Cheney “apparently defied her ethical responsibilities” while serving as vice chair on the Jan. 6 select committee.
Hutchinson began texting with Griffin in April 2022, two months before the made-for-TV hearings aired, claiming she had additional evidence that might be relevant to the select committee’s investigation.
The two met at Griffin’s Georgetown home and reportedly discussed that Trump had “agreed” with the Capitol mob’s chants of “Hang Mike Pence” during the melee that temporarily halted the certification of the 2020 electoral count.
In an April 28, 2022, message on the encrypted app Signal, Griffin acknowledged that it was unethical for Cheney to coordinate further testimony scheduled for May 17, 2022, without her then-lawyer Stefan Passantino present.
“Her one concern was so long ad [sic] you have counsel, she can’t really ethically talk to you without him,” Griffin told Hutchinson.
The ex-White House aide testified for a third time the following month to the Democrat-led House committee, sharing several “unverified” stories, according to Loudermilk’s panel.
Hutchinson sent Signal messages directly to Cheney requesting “a private conversation” on June 6, 2022, three days before the first televised committee hearing.
Around the same time, Hutchinson rejected Passantino as her counsel, and lawyers from Alston and Bird, Jody Hunt and Bill Jordan, began representing the former aide to White House chief of staff Mark Meadows pro bono.
The change-up elicited a “dramatic change in testimony and eventual claims against President Trump using second- and third-hand accounts,” Loudermilk’s panel added.
Hutchinson went on to testify three more times before the Jan. 6 committee, claiming spectacularly that the 45th president had lunged for the wheel of his Secret Service limousine, nicknamed “the Beast,” to try to join his mob of supporters at the Capitol protesting the 2020 election count.
No White House employees or Secret Service agents have corroborated the story, but she claimed the president’s deputy chief of staff for operations, Anthony Ornato, told her about it.
Former White House lawyer Eric Herschmann also disputed Hutchinson’s claim of having drafted a statement urging the rioters to head home — and an aide to Meadows denounced her for insinuating his boss didn’t care about the destruction and couldn’t “snap out of” it when pressed for a response.
Hutchinson further alleged that Trump smashed his lunch plate against a wall in anger.
Cheney disclosed in her memoir that Hutchinson had spoken with her “directly” about switching up her counsel but wrote that she had first been “inclined to represent herself going forward” at the time of the hearings.
“Ultimately, Cassidy decided to retain two new lawyers,” said the former Wyoming Republican, who chaired her party’s House conference, in the book.
That account clashed with Hutchinson’s memoir “Enough,” in which she recalled Cheney gave her the names of several attorneys to choose from.
Another Signal message dated May 2, 2022, shows Griffin and Hutchinson agreeing with Passantino’s legal “approach” to the earlier testimonies — before the ex-Trump aide threw him under the bus later the same year.
She claimed the former White House ethics counsel was trying to protect Trump and his allies, instead of having her best interests in mind.
“I’m your lawyer. I know what’s best for you. The less you remember, the better,” Hutchinson quoted him as advising her.
Loudermilk’s panel accused Cheney of using Passantino as a “scapegoat” — and trying to get him debarred — in order to explain away the differences between Hutchinson’s earlier testimonies and subsequent testimonies.
She was later ousted as House GOP conference chair and primaried by now-Rep. Harriet Hageman. Cheney went on to endorse Harris, 59, over Trump, 78, last month — despite having ripped the VP and former California senator for years as a “radical” liberal.
Cheney, Griffin, Hutchinson and Passantino did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Neither did Hutchinson’s attorneys.
