Ex-Mueller prosecutor sued after saying lawyer coached Cassidy Hutchinson to lie to Jan. 6 committee

Former Mueller investigation prosecutor Andrew Weissmann is being sued by Stefan Passantino, a Trumpworld-paid lawyer who initially represented former White House aide Cassidy Hutchinson, reported The Guardian's Hugo Lowell on Friday.

Passantino alleges that Weissmann, a frequent legal commentator on cable news, defamed him when he said that he had "coached" Hutchinson to lie to the House January 6 Committee during her testimony.

Hutchinson gave bombshell allegations to the Committee about former President Donald Trump's activities on the day of the attack on the U.S. Capitol, claiming, among other things, that Trump demanded the Capitol take down security for the rioters because "they're not there to hurt me," and that he physically fought with his Secret Service driver when he refused to take him to the Capitol to join the rioters. Secret Service officials have disputed Hutchinson's version of events.

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Reporting from CNN subsequently revealed that Passantino, whose law practice received funding from Trump's Save America PAC, was advising Hutchinson to say she did not remember various details about the day that would have put the former president in a bad light.

Passantino, who took a leave of absence from his law firm and faced an ethics complaint filed with the D.C. Bar following these allegations, has also sued the January 6 Committee for pushing what he says is a "false narrative" about his legal counsel.

But the allegations around Passantino are not isolated. Other attorneys who have been paid by Trump-linked groups to represent witnesses in investigations have also been accused of giving conflicted advice. Yuscil Taveras, an IT worker at the former president's Mar-a-Lago resort who reportedly witnessed the concealment of classified information, switched from a lawyer paid by Trump groups to a federal public defender, and changed his testimony as he did so.