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Trump is 'dangerously close' to buying loyalty of his former aides with legal fees: MSNBC's Katie Phang
July 01, 2022
On MSNBC Friday, anchor Katie Phang and former federal prosecutor Renato Mariotti discussed the implications of a new report that former President Donald Trump's PAC is shelling out legal fees to January 6 probe subjects — and whether this means the former president is trying to buy off their loyalty and silence.
Cassidy Hutchinson, a former aide to Chief of Staff Mark Meadows who recently testified about the former president's behavior on January 6, recently extricated herself from a representation deal with attorneys tied to Trump — and the report this week revealed "more than a dozen" other officials have similar arrangements.
"Think about this," said Phang, herself a former prosecutor. "The change in counsel, there was clearly a line of demarcation, almost like that line in the sand of saying I am actually going to now come forward and publicly speak, not because, we know that Donald Trump, the pack and the political organization and his allies, he is funding legal fees, not only for something like Cassidy Hutchinson but for several other people who have been witnesses. Ethically, it's okay, you can have a third party pay legal fees, you know that as a lawyer, Renato, but don't you think don't you think you get so dangerously close to the idea that you have to remain loyal to them? So isn't that an idea that maybe she owed it to him because she was getting her fees paid by Donald Trump?"
"Here is what I would say," said Mariotti. "But, as you pointed out, Katie, it is ethical to have someone else pay for your legal fees. Obviously when someone is paying hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of legal fees at your behalf, there is now gratitude or potentially an obligation that you feel. Obviously I can't speak for Miss Hutchinson, but I think that there could be this element where you feel like there is an incentive or you feel wrong going against that person."
Mariotti then explained another key reason why Hutchinson felt a need to get out of the legal arrangement with pro-Trump attorneys.
"I think it is also fair to say that while it is certainly ethical and very routine for attorneys to be paid in investigations of all sorts, it is the case that when counsel is, that they connected with or coordinated with other counsel, whether it is a joint defense or some other sort of arrangement, there's a lot of communication that takes place," said Mariotti. "I'm sure Miss Hutchinson has the inkling or the feeling that her attorney was probably coordinating with other attorneys who are then representing other witnesses that are a part of Trump world, and anything she said would get past to those other powers that be. potentially before she had a chance to say something publicly. So I suspect she did not feel comfortable and that is why she did what she did."
Watch below:
Katie Phang and Renato Mariotti discuss Trump legal fees www.youtube.com
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Election denier Kari Lake was the subject of a hard-hitting new analysis by CNN fact-checker Daniel Dale.
"A leading Republican candidate for governor of Arizona, Kari Lake, continues to put lies about the 2020 presidential election at the center of her campaign – this week calling it 'disqualifying' and 'sickening' for a rival candidate not to say that the election was stolen, though it wasn’t stolen," he reported. "Lake’s strong performance in the Republican primary so far means that an aggressively dishonest promoter of conspiracy theories about the 2020 election could potentially have a prominent role in the 2024 presidential election in a key swing state."
At the debate, Lake lied about President Joe Biden when she said, “He lost the election and he shouldn’t be in the White House.”
\u201c\u201cWould you agree that we had a corrupt, stolen election? Raise your hand\u201d \n\nOnly one #AZGOV Candidate REFUSED to raise her hand: Karrin Taylor Robson. \n\nDisqualifying.\u201d— Kari Lake for AZ Governor (@Kari Lake for AZ Governor) 1656549299
"As supposed proof, Lake cited a 'forensic audit.' A shambolic Republican-initiated partisan review, described by supporters as an audit but marred by problems, confirmed that Biden beat Trump in Arizona’s most populous county," Dale noted. "Lake also defended a right-wing film about the 2020 election that is filled with holes of logic and evidence, even after the debate moderator noted that Trump-appointed former Attorney General William Barr had scoffed at the film. And Lake falsely said that 34,000 Arizona ballots 'were counted two, three and four times,' though this simply did not happen."
And Lake is even trying to clean up her lies during the debate.
"Lake’s campaign declined to make a substantive comment for this article. When asked for supporting information about Lake’s false claim that ballots were counted up to four times, an adviser replied only by mocking CNN," Dale reported.
Early voting begins on Wednesday in the August 2 GOP
Lake has been endorsed by Trump.
\u201cArizona's Kari Lake, who is waging one of the country's most aggressively dishonest 2022 campaigns, says it\u2019s "disqualifying" and "sickening" for her top rival to not call the 2020 election "stolen," though it wasn't stolen: https://t.co/N8BvSt5wCX\u201d— Daniel Dale (@Daniel Dale) 1656711688
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Mark Meadows asked an associate to 'influence' January 6 testimony of his former aide: report
July 01, 2022
On Friday, CNN reported that one of the people who tried to "influence" the testimony of former White House aide Cassidy Hutchinson to the House Select Committee investigating the January 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol, did so on the request of Hutchinson's former boss, Trump Chief of Staff Mark Meadows.
"Republican Rep. Liz Cheney of Wyoming, the vice chairwoman of the committee, brought up two examples of possible witness intimidation at a hearing featuring Hutchinson, who was an aide to Meadows in the Trump White House, earlier this week, without naming a witness or who made contact," reported Zachary Cohen, Ryan Nobles, and Annie Grayer. "Sources now tell CNN that both instances recounted by Cheney were directed at Hutchinson, and that Hutchinson believes the messages were intended to impact her testimony."
"In one instance, Cheney said a witness received a call in which someone said: '(A person) let me know you have your deposition tomorrow. He wants me to let you know that he's thinking about you. He knows you're loyal, and you're going to do the right thing when you go in for your deposition,'" said the report.
According to the report, Meadows' team vehemently denies anything of the sort happened, with Meadows spokesperson Ben Williamson saying, "No one from Meadows camp, himself or otherwise, ever sought to intimidate or shape her conversations with the committee."
Legal experts have suggested that Meadows is facing serious liability for his active involvement in efforts to overturn the 2020 election, with former prosecutor Larry Hitman saying that the Justice Department is likely to make Meadows the subject or target of a criminal investigation.
Hutchinson provided a number of explosive new details about Trump's alleged behavior on the day of the attack, including that he demanded rioters be allowed to march to the Capitol even knowing that they were armed, and that he assaulted his own protective detail after the Secret Service told him he couldn't join his supporters at the site of the attack.
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