At the end of Tuesday's hearing, the House Select Committee investigating the January 6th Capitol riots revealed that some of its witnesses had received messages encouraging them to not offer incriminating information about former President Donald Trump.
According to one witness's sworn testimony, they were told that they would "continued to stay in good graces in Trump World" as long as "I'm doing the right thing, I'm protecting who I need to protect."
Reacting to this, CNN legal analyst Eli Honig said this tactic reminded him of some of the things he saw while working as a federal prosecutor at the United States Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York.
"A lot of people have observed that that's how a mob boss talks," said Honig. "I have prosecuted actual mob bosses here in New York City, that is how they talk... What else is mob-like about this, it wasn't the boss, it wasn't Donald Trump conveying that message directly to Cassidy Hutchinson, it was some unnamed intermediary. That's how they do it."
Honig said that whoever sent the message will not be immune from legal scrutiny, however.
"If we can prove who said that, that is textbook witness tampering, obstruction of justice," he said. "So DOJ ought to be taking a look at this. The other things to remember, we were asking a few days ago why the emergency hearing? Why this unscheduled hearing suddenly appearing? I believe it's because they feared if somebody got in Cassidy Hutchinson's ear, a simple well-placed sentence could have knocked her off path, intimidated her."
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