Former White House Counsel Stefan Passantino’s office has benefited the most from receiving a total of $1.6 million from groups linked to the Republican tycoon so far in 2022, CNN reported Friday.
Passantino’s office previously represented Cassidy Hutchinson, a former adviser to Trump’s chief of staff who was cooperating with the House Committee’s investigation into the events of January 6, 2021 and made key testimonies only after her split from Passantino.
His case is an example of someone who decided to change attorneys and then testify before the committee, Democratic Rep. Jamie Raskin, a member of the investigative committee, told CNN.
The payments to the law firms raise questions about whether Trump is using donation money to fund lawyers encouraging witnesses not to cooperate in investigating the former president’s attempts to nullify the 2020 election.
Other recipients include Abel Bean Law, representing Trump spokesman Taylor Budowich; and to JP Rowley Law, representing then-White House Counsel Peter Navarro.
In the United States, political action committees (PACs) are private organizations whose purpose is to support or influence a candidate in electoral processes and to promote or prevent the passage of certain laws.
Trump’s Save America PAC and Make America Great Again PAC collectively raised $120 million from donors after the 2020 election, which incumbent Democrat Joe Biden won.
Some of that money will be used to pay witnesses’ legal fees, and it’s unclear if that arrangement has coercive potential on some of them, Congresswoman Zoe Lofgren said.
The eighth public hearing of the House Special Committee was held last night, focusing on how Trump watched the Jan. 6, 2021 attack on Capitol Hill live on television from the White House and ignored calls to end the violence.
The former president “recklessly opened a path of anarchy and corruption” on Jan. 6, 2021, when his supporters stormed Legislature headquarters and he did nothing, said the task force’s head, Rep. Bennie Thompson.
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