The DOJ is going to make Mark Meadows a suspect or target of an investigation: Ex-Justice Department official
Former U.S. Attorney and Deputy Assistant Attorney General Harry Litman explained Wednesday on MSNBC that Cassidy Hutchinson's testimony before the House Select Committee was a "game-changer."
Hutchinson was a top aide in the White House in the lead-up to the attempt to overthrow the 2020 election and the attack on Congress on Jan. 6. Speaking under oath to the committee on Tuesday, she linked her former boss, then-chief of staff Mark Meadows to first-hand knowledge about several possible conspiracies.
Litman first explained that he thinks former White House Counsel Pat Cipollone will ultimately come forward about what he knows. Cipollone hasn't been willing to come forward, but he's been called out by the committee on several occasions. Just last week, co-chair Rep. Liz Cheney (R-WY) named him, but said that the evidence they've received from witnesses indicates he "tried to do the right thing."
Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-MD) noted that one of the reasons they've talked about him so much as a witness is that they have heard his name so many times from so many witnesses.
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"We have a pressure of history, the kind of John Dean moment and 'what side are you on.' It is big enough that for a guy like Pat who wants to be an establishment figure, get further jobs in administrations and the like, her forthrightness and courage makes a poor contrast with his cravenness and his, sort of, I don't want to say hiding behind, but his assertions of privilege really are makeweight now because we know Biden says that there is no privilege," Litman explained. "Moreover, Cipollone is a told Bill Barr guy from the start and Bill Barr did come forward and testify. My best guess is that they are trying to work out an arrangement for him to come forward. Not because he is in general hot water, but because he doesn't want to be on the wrong side of history and a narrative that has now gotten profoundly more serious in the last 24 hours."
As for Meadows, host Chris Jansing asked why someone like him would come forward if he's a potential target for the Justice Department.
"This is what happens with potential criminals," Litman said frankly. "You decide maybe you should play an open hand. I have no doubt that Meadows is thinking about — you're right, Chris, he is too big to get a free ride, but he is not too big to get some consideration. So, he has to rethink his posture and think of what kind of problems he is in if he doesn't come forward. He is thinking mainly about himself and his own skin. But there are reasons that suspects have for not coming forward to cooperate. I don't see it happening with him. on the other hand I see it as way more likely than I did yesterday that the department will make him a very serious suspect or target of investigations."
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