It’s not easy to change one’s mind. It is not easy to admit a mistake. It is not easy to abandon familiar people and places — even when you know they are evil and corrupt. It is not easy even when you know leaving them will lead you to a new world of clarity and consistency.
Yet, in everyone’s life, circumstances eventually arise in which the line between truth and lies, reality and fantasy, the line between good and evil, becomes extremely clear. When we reach that point, we must choose between the truth and continued self-deception. This decision will determine the direction of the rest of our life. That is what happened to Cassidy Hutchinson in 2022.
Called to testify
Cassidy Hutchinson was a young aide to Trump White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows. As such, she worked daily in the West Wing. She saw and heard many things in the Trump White House first hand and knew all the major players in the administration personally.
When the House January 6th Committee indicated that they wanted to talk to her, she began to look for a lawyer. This is standard practice for anyone who is called to appear before a Congressional Committee. It does not imply that she felt guilty about anything — or that she was being accused of anything.
Cassidy Hutchinson’s problem was that lawyers are expensive and she didn’t have much money. She told her problem to several people and one day a lawyer, Stefan Passantino, contacted her and said she would not have to pay him. When she asked who WOULD be paying him, he refused to tell her.
The loyalty test
From the beginning, Passantino told Hutchinson to downplay her role in the White House when she testified to the Committee. He encouraged her to become forgetful.
The less you remember, the better.
Stefan Passantino
Passantino was with Hutchinson during her first two Committee interviews (via Webex) in February and March of 2022. It soon became clear to her that Passantino was not working for her. His loyalty was to Trump.
Everything’s going to be OK. We’re taking care of you. Just downplay your position. … It’s not fair that Mark [Meadows] put you in this position. We just want to focus on protecting the president. We all know you’re loyal. Let’s just get you in and out, and this day will be easy, I promise.
Stefan Passantino
The feeling of being watched
Ms. Hutchinson is not stupid. She knew that Passantino was from “Trumpworld” (her phrase). He was a former White House ethics counselor (!!). He and others implied that they would find the unemployed Hutchinson a lucrative job if she cooperated with their wishes.
It wasn’t just that I had Stefan sitting next to me; it was almost like I felt like I had Trump looking over my shoulder. Because I knew in some fashion it would get back to him if I said anything that he would find disloyal. And the prospect of that genuinely scared me. You know, I’d seen this world ruin people’s lives or try to ruin people’s careers. I’d seen how vicious they can be.
Cassidy Hutchinson
Cassidy Hutchinson increasingly felt like she should get a new lawyer, but she was frightened to do so and told her mother about it.
‘I am completely indebted to these people,’ and I was like, ‘And they will ruin my life, Mom, if I do anything they don’t want me to do.’
Cassidy Hutchinson
Finding courage
Cassidy Hutchinson found the courage to fire Stefan Passantino when he suggested she stop cooperating with the Committee. She told him she did not want to risk being charged with contempt. Rather than supporting his client’s desire to tell the full truth, cooperate with a Congressional Committee, and obey the law, he told her, “Contempt is a small risk.”
Cassidy Hutchinson, once she was free from the insidious, corrupt, “loyalty” demanded by Trumpworld, gave revealing testimony (in person, with a new lawyer) to the Committee on June 20, 2022. She described in some detail what happened behind the scenes on the day of January 6th.
This was followed by her detailed, eye-opening, insider testimony at the first televised Committee hearing on June 28.
Apologizing
Later, in September, she returned to the Committee and apologized for her less-than-forthcoming testimony given the previous February and March while represented by Passantino.
I followed his bad legal advice; I took his bad legal advice, I own that. But my character and integrity mean more to me than anything.
It was clear for a long time that he was not representing my interests in how he knew I wanted to facilitate my relationship with the committee. But I was not going to let this moment completely destroy my reputation, my character, and my integrity for a cause that I was starkly opposed to.
Cassidy Hutchinson
Are YOU compromised?
Loyalty to Trump has compromised the integrity, character, and reputation of many people. Are YOU still loyal to him? If so, how far will you go? Will you lie for him? (Many, many people do this). Steal for him? (He didn’t move all those classified documents to Mar-A-Lago by himself).
Would you run over someone with your car? Would you shatter windows and break down doors? Will you shoot someone in the street?
Cassidy Hutchinson drew the line at lying under oath. And it still took her MONTHS to find the courage to step away.
It’s not easy to change one’s mind. It is not easy to admit a mistake. But it can be done. It is best to not procrastinate. The longer you wait, the harder it will be.
And now, as I said unto you before, as ye have had so many witnesses, therefore, I beseech of you that ye do not procrastinate the day of your repentance until the end; for after this day of life, which is given us to prepare for eternity, behold, if we do not improve our time while in this life, then cometh the night of darkness wherein there can be no labor performed.
Alma 34:33
Sources:
Rebecca Beitsch, “Cassidy Hutchinson transcript details efforts to downplay her Jan. 6 testimony,” The Hill, December 12, 2022.
Jamie Gangel, Jake Tapper, Jeremy Herb, and Elizabeth Stuart, “Cassidy Hutchinson told the January 6 committee she felt pressure from Trump allies not to talk and instead risk ‘contempt’,” CNN, December 22, 2022.
Eric Tucker, “Read the Transcripts of Cassidy Hutchinson’s closed-door Jan. 6 testimony,” PBS, December 22, 2022.
Edward Helmore, “Transcripts reveal Cassidy Hutchinson was pressured to protect Trump: ‘I was scared’,” The Guardian, December 24, 2022.
Jeremy Herb, et al, “Former Trump White House aide told Jan. 6 panel Mark Meadows burned documents a dozen times during the transition period,” CNN, December 28, 2022.
Catie Edmundson, “A Timeline of the Key Scenes in Cassidy Hutchinson’s Jan. 6 Testimony,” The New York Times, June 28, 2022.
Cassidy Hutchinson, “Testimony Before the Jan 6th Committee Hearing,” YouTube, June 28, 2022.
As impressive as her original congressional testimony was, the details behind it are even more startling and telling.