Dem
51
GOP
49
Ruth Marcus has a column in The Washington Post that is as sad as it is revealing. It discusses the plight of Cassidy Hutchinson, once an aide to Mark Meadows and later a star witness at the Select Committee hearings. She is in her mid-20s and out of work since Trump left office. When the Committee decided it wanted to hear from her because she was at the center of the storm and saw everything first hand, she tried to find a lawyer to help her. She found one, but he wanted a $150,000 retainer—money she didn't have. So she turned to Trumpworld for help. Sure enough, she soon got a call from Stefan Passantino, who worked in the White House Counsel's office during Trump's presidency. He was willing to help. When she asked who would pay the bills, the response was "we have you taken care of." So not only would some unnamed person pay her legal bills without her knowing who it was (a violation of legal ethics), but she was promised a good job in Trumpworld later. She was in her mid 20s, unemployed, frightened, and didn't know what to do.
Hutchinson called her mother and said: "They will ruin my life, Mom, if I do anything they don't want me to do." At first she went along with Passantino because she was scared and didn't know what else to do. Passantino coached her. He didn't tell her to lie but he did tell her to answer most questions with: "I don't recall." He said that is not perjury. Actually, if you do remember—and she remembered most of the things she was asked about vividly—it is perjury. She was hesitant to go along with this, but was still scared. They practiced preparing for the deposition and Passantino kept telling her "No no no no. We don't want to go there." Passantino kept emphasizing that Hutchinson's task was to protect Trump at all costs. In effect, he was Trump's lawyer, not hers. It was a horrible time for a young woman who was in way over her head and was afraid that "once you are looped in, especially financially, with them, there is no turning back. It is like working with the Mafia."
In the end, Hutchinson decided that she couldn't look herself in the mirror if she did what Trumpworld wanted, so she fired Passantino and told the Committee the full truth. Now he has a problem, not her.
Above we have an item about who pleaded the Fifth Amendment. After reading this (or better yet, Marcus' entire column), you might have a better idea of why so many people did that. (V)