‘Send this to DOJ immediately’: Legal expert says Trump allies appear to have committed a 'very serious' crime
This Tuesday, the Jan. 6 committee warned about possible efforts by Trump allies to pressure witnesses into providing false testimony. Rep. Liz Cheney (R-WY) said the committee was aware of multiple instances in which witnesses testifying before the committee were pressured by allies of former President Donald Trump to change their testimony.
CNN reported Thursday that Cassidy Hutchinson was one of those witnesses.
Speaking on CNN, legal analyst Elie Honig said that it is clear evidence of witness tampering.
"This is not 'arguable' witness tampering, this is not 'maybe' witness tampering -- you look at the content of those messages ... it's textbook," Honig said, adding that the committee "needs to send this to DOJ immediately, because that's a crime."
"Donald Trump and some of his supporters over the years have dismissed this kind of thing as a 'process crime,'" Honig continued. "I reject that kind of categorization as a former prosecutor. Crimes that intimidate witnesses, that interfere with the process undermine the heart of any truth-finding function, and so this is very serious."
Hutchinson has already been the source of several blockbuster revelations, appearing in videotaped depositions at two previous hearings and memorably naming a group of House Republicans who sought pardons from Trump following the violence.
She was also in contact with officials in the battleground state of Georgia, where Trump infamously pressured officials to "find" enough votes to overcome Biden's victory margin in a phone call that is the subject of a criminal probe.
It was Hutchinson, according to CNN, who told the select committee that Trump voiced approval for the "hang Mike Pence" chants from rioters at the Capitol -- an allegation that was among the many eye-popping claims to come out of the opening hearing on June 9.
Watch the video below.
With additional reporting by AFP
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