January 6th Committee Hearings Thread of Dominance

[jimmyjazz 45948]

At least he went with Duh Furor's "unselects" bon mot.  Way to stay in line, Ronny.

[Satchel 6938]

7 hours ago, WhatTheBuck said:

Yeah; but the outrageous fact of Jared and Ivanka having positions in the White House for which they were thoroughly unqualified, with budgets and staffs, while still profiting from their private business interests, is well established. There was also that time when Kellyanne Conway pitched one of Ivanka’s line of products during a political press briefing and suffered no consequences.

The payment to Guilfoyle is new information, as is the fact that Trump raised $250 Million in donations for a non-existent fraud defense fund. We also learned that he gave $1 Million of that to Mark Meadows’ PAC. They’re mobsters and it’s all about the grift. Imagine what we don’t know. And may never know.

Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump reported between $172 million and $640 million in outside income while working in the White House, according to an analysis of financial disclosures by CREW. It is impossible to tell the exact amount as the income is sometimes reported in broad ranges and cover four months of income before Ivanka Trump officially joined her father’s administration and nearly one month before Jared Kushner joined.

https://www.citizensforethics.org/reports-investigations/crew-investigations/jared-and-ivanka-made-up-to-640-million-in-the-white-house/

[atomheartbevo 89665]

21 minutes ago, Pig Bellmont said:

Totally normal and rational response by someone who has nothing to hide. 

Wonder if he has ties to the Oath Keeper that brought explosives and grenades.

[Mdhorn 5949]

46 minutes ago, atomheartbevo said:

Speculation is that his meltdown is tied to the committee looking into the Oath Keepers and their suspicious ties to Jackson (they were going to “protect” him, etc.)

 

It's always great when they try and throw shit at the fan.  Few criminals ever admit to committing crimes, much less treason. But when they do, nothing says sham more than a public social media posting drawing attention to the distraction, right?  Free advertising is free publicity and attention the committee didn't need to post.    

[Biff Tannen 45684]

2 hours ago, atomheartbevo said:

Speculation is that his meltdown is tied to the committee looking into the Oath Keepers and their suspicious ties to Jackson (they were going to “protect” him, etc.)

 

The comments are incredible.  They are a cult.

[Beau Vine 54226]

2 hours ago, Pig Bellmont said:

Totally normal and rational response by someone who has nothing to hide. 

 

[Jack Straw 2954]

2 hours ago, Satchel said:

Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump reported between $172 million and $640 million in outside income while working in the White House, according to an analysis of financial disclosures by CREW. It is impossible to tell the exact amount as the income is sometimes reported in broad ranges and cover four months of income before Ivanka Trump officially joined her father’s administration and nearly one month before Jared Kushner joined.

https://www.citizensforethics.org/reports-investigations/crew-investigations/jared-and-ivanka-made-up-to-640-million-in-the-white-house/

when I read things like this, my first, and really only thought is, “why isn’t Hillary in jail yet?  why aren’t we all talking about that?”

-all Republicans 

[Bookman 4639]

Just think, all this happened because a black guy was elected President.

[WhatTheBuck 28781]

2 hours ago, Satchel said:

Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump reported between $172 million and $640 million in outside income while working in the White House, according to an analysis of financial disclosures by CREW. It is impossible to tell the exact amount as the income is sometimes reported in broad ranges and cover four months of income before Ivanka Trump officially joined her father’s administration and nearly one month before Jared Kushner joined.

https://www.citizensforethics.org/reports-investigations/crew-investigations/jared-and-ivanka-made-up-to-640-million-in-the-white-house/

I don’t know what the final tally was of trademarks granted to Ivanka by the Chinese during the Trump presidency. In 2018 she was granted 16. And get this:

“In October, China’s Trademark Office granted provisional approval for 16 trademarks to Ivanka Trump Marks LLC, bringing to 34 the total number of marks China has greenlighted this year, according to the office’s online database. The new approvals cover Ivanka-branded fashion gear including sunglasses, handbags, shoes and jewelry, as well as beauty services and voting machines.” [Emphasis mine.]

https://apnews.com/article/north-america-donald-trump-trademarks-voting-ivanka-trump-0a3283036d2f4e699da4aa3c6dd01727

[WhatTheBuck 28781]

1 minute ago, Bookman said:

Just think, all this happened because a black guy was elected President.

And he made fun of Donald at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner to raucous applause.

[The Dog 44051]

It appears Cipollone sang like a canary.

Edited July 9, 2022 by The Dog

[TwiceHorn 31470]

39 minutes ago, WhatTheBuck said:

I don’t know what the final tally was of trademarks granted to Ivanka by the Chinese during the Trump presidency. In 2018 she was granted 16. And get this:

“In October, China’s Trademark Office granted provisional approval for 16 trademarks to Ivanka Trump Marks LLC, bringing to 34 the total number of marks China has greenlighted this year, according to the office’s online database. The new approvals cover Ivanka-branded fashion gear including sunglasses, handbags, shoes and jewelry, as well as beauty services and voting machines.” [Emphasis mine.]

https://apnews.com/article/north-america-donald-trump-trademarks-voting-ivanka-trump-0a3283036d2f4e699da4aa3c6dd01727

This is such a nothing burger.  https://www.tmdn.org/tmview/#/tmview/results?page=1&pageSize=30&criteria=C&offices=CN,WO&territories=CN&appName=Ivanka Trump Marks LLC&sortColumn=registrationDate&desc=false

She has 62 TM registrations in China.  Curiously, she filed "directly" in China, not using the various mechanisms to "relate" her Chinese registrations to her US registrations.  Also curiously, but smartly, most of the registrations are for the same mark "Ivanka Trump" with or without logo, but the sheer number of them is due to the fact that each is registered for a single class of goods. If she had combined goods in a single registration, she would have probably 1/4 that number, maybe fewer.

She had several such registrations dating back to 2010-2011.

And, filing directly in China, like that, it takes about 11-24 months to receive a registration.  The ones she did during the Trump administration were no faster or shorter than usual.

A better question might be why did she file so many registrations from 2016-2018, when she was ostensibly busy as a presidential aide.  She filed a bunch on May 17, 2016, most of which issued in due course in 2018.

 

Edited July 9, 2022 by TwiceHorn

[Bullneck 19089]

https://www.huffpost.com/entry/zoe-lofgren-pat-cipollone-no-contradiction-interview_n_62c90060e4b0aa392d3efb6e

The concern was that Cipollone would undermine Hutchinson's testimony.  Apparently he didn't do that.

Quote

Pat Cipollone 'Didn't Contradict' Any Jan. 6 Witnesses in His Testimony: Rep. Zoe Lofgren

Trump's former White House counsel answered a “variety of questions” and revealed some new information, which the panel will soon share, said Lofgren.

 

 

Edited July 9, 2022 by Bullneck

[atomheartbevo 89665]

[WhatTheBuck 28781]

24 minutes ago, TwiceHorn said:

This is such a nothing burger.  https://www.tmdn.org/tmview/#/tmview/results?page=1&pageSize=30&criteria=C&offices=CN,WO&territories=CN&appName=Ivanka Trump Marks LLC&sortColumn=registrationDate&desc=false

She has 62 TM registrations in China.  Curiously, she filed "directly" in China, not using the various mechanisms to "relate" her Chinese registrations to her US registrations.  Also curiously, but smartly, most of the registrations are for the same mark "Ivanka Trump" with or without logo, but the sheer number of them is due to the fact that each is registered for a single class of goods. If she had combined goods in a single registration, she would have probably 1/4 that number, maybe fewer.

She had several such registrations dating back to 2010-2011.

And, filing directly in China, like that, it takes about 11-24 months to receive a registration.  The ones she did during the Trump administration were no faster or shorter than usual.

A better question might be why did she file so many registrations from 2016-2018, when she was ostensibly busy as a presidential aide.  She filed a bunch on May 17, 2016, most of which issued in due course in 2018.

Is it appropriate for her to be operating her private business while she’s working in the White House for her father who was President and who also didn’t divest himself from his private business? I figure the smart money goes on sleaze and corruption when it comes to the Trumps and that bet is always going to have a positive EV. Remember that time Ivanka got sued by an Italian shoemaker for stealing their design? She wound up settling out of court.

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-ivankatrump-aquazzura-lawsuit/ivanka-trump-italys-aquazzura-end-wild-thing-shoe-lawsuit-idUSKBN1DH2MS

And hey, did you notice I referred to them as trademarks and not patents?  

[Underdog 28631]

57 minutes ago, The Dog said:

It appears Cipollone sang like a canary.

 

[WhatTheBuck 28781]

1 hour ago, The Dog said:

It appears Cipollone sang like a canary.

Or did he squeal like a pig?

[atomheartbevo 89665]

3 minutes ago, WhatTheBuck said:

Or did he squeal like a pig?

[TwiceHorn 31470]

26 minutes ago, WhatTheBuck said:

Is it appropriate for her to be operating her private business while she’s working in the White House for her father who was President and who also didn’t divest himself from his private business? I figure the smart money goes on sleaze and corruption when it comes to the Trumps and that bet is always going to have a positive EV. Remember that time Ivanka got sued by an Italian shoemaker for stealing their design? She wound up settling out of court.

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-ivankatrump-aquazzura-lawsuit/ivanka-trump-italys-aquazzura-end-wild-thing-shoe-lawsuit-idUSKBN1DH2MS

And hey, did you notice I referred to them as trademarks and not patents?  

Well, yeah, that was my final question.

It does not appear that there was any influence peddling at the CNIPA.

I'm not sure I'd put it past the Chinese to unilaterally speed things up to curry favor, but that does not appear to have happened.

[Biff Tannen 45684]

1 hour ago, WhatTheBuck said:

Or did he squeal like a pig?

[Pato del Muerto 52498]

Melted like a gelato?

[WhatTheBuck 28781]

5 minutes ago, TwiceHorn said:

Well, yeah, that was my final question.

It does not appear that there was any influence peddling at the CNIPA.

I'm not sure I'd put it past the Chinese to unilaterally speed things up to curry favor, but that does not appear to have happened.

I think it’s important to keep that information in our back  pocket whenever Republicans bitch about Hunter Biden’s jobs or foreign donations to the Clinton Foundation (an A-rated charity that does actual charitable works and whose books are open, unlike the Trump charity which used its money to pay his legal bills and was forced to dissolve).

And then, of course, there was Jared getting bailed out on his 666 5th Ave. boondoggle by a hedge fund with a major Qatari interest and his subsequent dealings with the Saudis, getting a $2 Billion investment from them in his new private equity firm just months after the Trump presidency ended. The whole family is dirty.

Amateurs playing government for personal gain.

[hookem2010 2624]

New episodes of Better Call Saul, What We Do In the Shadows AND the January 6th committee from July 11-12?!? It's going to be an entertaining 24 hours. Can we get some commits too?

[Judge Roybeanbag 11819]

Nothing is happening, Marital Bed Episode 27.

[Judge Roybeanbag 11819]

That’s years, not days, or even months. 

[Satchel 6938]

1 hour ago, WhatTheBuck said:

I think it’s important to keep that information in our back  pocket whenever Republicans bitch about Hunter Biden’s jobs or foreign donations to the Clinton Foundation (an A-rated charity that does actual charitable works and whose books are open, unlike the Trump charity which used its money to pay his legal bills and was forced to dissolve).

And then, of course, there was Jared getting bailed out on his 666 5th Ave. boondoggle by a hedge fund with a major Qatari interest and his subsequent dealings with the Saudis, getting a $2 Billion investment from them in his new private equity firm just months after the Trump presidency ended. The whole family is dirty.

Amateurs playing government for personal gain.

It’s amazing how Republicans can be aware of all of this and still not be embarrassed to bring up Hunter Biden.

[Eskimohorn 5635]

Just think, all this happened because a black guy was elected President.

It kinda started when black people were granted citizenship.

[Beau Vine 54226]

7 hours ago, atomheartbevo said:

Wonder if he has ties to the Oath Keeper that brought explosives and grenades.

Not an issue remotely belonging to one party.  We as a society own it.

[Neonmoon 38129]

52 minutes ago, Eskimohorn said:

It kinda started when black people were granted citizenship.

[WhatTheBuck 28781]

1 hour ago, Satchel said:

It’s amazing how Republicans can be aware of all of this and still not be embarrassed to bring up Hunter Biden.

A book I don’t need to read in order to know exactly what it’s going to say:

[Bullneck 19089]

 

 

[Sawbonz 27561]

10 hours ago, Biff Tannen said:

The comments are incredible.  They are a cult.

 

[Hagbard Celine 10864]

dotard waives executive privelege for bannon

what's his angle?

 

https://www.cnn.com/2022/07/10/politics/steve-bannon-trump-january-6-executive-privilege/index.html

[Chewy's Hairy Horn 868]

Trying, belatedly, to demonstrate he’s not obstructing?

[Biff Tannen 45684]

Bannon is just going to lie his ass off.  Not sure why they would want him to testify.

[Red Five 40858]

He wasn't even working in the White House. How is there any privilege to waive?

[Francisco 2.0 32392]

5 minutes ago, Biff Tannen said:

Bannon is just going to lie his ass off.  Not sure why they would want him to testify.

 

He's gonna testify he doesn't know who Donald Trump is

 

 

 

[TXSG8R 3362]

7 minutes ago, Biff Tannen said:

Bannon is just going to lie his ass off.  Not sure why they would want him to testify.

Yup, the hearings are sowing too much down there. They need some alternative facts put on camera.  

[atomheartbevo 89665]

Comments are great

 

[TwiceHorn 31470]

2 hours ago, Hagbard Celine said:

dotard waives executive privelege for bannon

what's his angle?

 

https://www.cnn.com/2022/07/10/politics/steve-bannon-trump-january-6-executive-privilege/index.html

The angle is that Bannon is fucking pissing down his leg about his trial next week. 

Fat fucking cunt is afraid of jail time and wants to testify to mitigate his punishment. 

He needs trump to waive non-existent privelege to give him some notional good faith in refusing to testify in the first place. 

[sidis 9828]

random thought about these hearings and their effectiveness.

as i said way, way upthread, i think the committee is doing a very nice presentation job on this and presenting a fairly persuasive and compelling case on 1/6 and the fact that trump, among many others, are actually culpable for this.  but despite the fact that they are doing a good job and even trying to generate interest doing prime time tv sessions, etc..., we know this is entirely ineffective because only political junkies are going to participate.

if i was king and responsible for stategizing how best to compel the average u.s. citizen to pay attention to the utterly heinous shit that actually occurred here, i would employ the producers/directors/runners of all the real-life docs on netflix like "making a murderer" or "the staircase" or whatever that get real viral, real fast and generate lots of online discussion and anticipation and present it that way.  while frontline type presentations are effective amongst people with a greater than 30 second attention span...for most of the country, you need a different, more clever approach to the presentation with cliffhangers and other techniques to make it compelling to a broader segment.

anyway, not really a productive contribution to the thread but i wish that all this really horrible shit we are being treated to through the hearings could be farther reaching.

[Biff Tannen 45684]

1 hour ago, sidis said:

if i was king and responsible for stategizing how best to compel the average u.s. citizen to pay attention to the utterly heinous shit that actually occurred here, i would employ the producers/directors/runners of all the real-life docs on netflix like "making a murderer" or "the staircase" or whatever that get real viral, real fast and generate lots of online discussion and anticipation and present it that way.  while frontline type presentations are effective amongst people with a greater than 30 second attention span...for most of the country, you need a different, more clever approach to the presentation with cliffhangers and other techniques to make it compelling to a broader segment.

This is actually really smart.  Would Netflix or another large production company be willing to take the political "heat" for making it happen though?

[Nice Guy Eddie 13512]

Bannon isn’t going to testify to anything. I bet he will only agree to “testify” on tv directly to the American public and then argue with committee members, refuse to directly answer questions and just make up stories.

besides he’s already had a chance to speak with them and refused. now he’s afraid of his upcoming trial due to his previous refusal to talk. This is all about his defense that he was waiting for trump to realize him from exec privilege when there never was any exec privilege.

 

[NameAlreadyInUse 5112]

2 hours ago, sidis said:

random thought about these hearings and their effectiveness.

as i said way, way upthread, i think the committee is doing a very nice presentation job on this and presenting a fairly persuasive and compelling case on 1/6 and the fact that trump, among many others, are actually culpable for this.  but despite the fact that they are doing a good job and even trying to generate interest doing prime time tv sessions, etc..., we know this is entirely ineffective because only political junkies are going to participate.

if i was king and responsible for stategizing how best to compel the average u.s. citizen to pay attention to the utterly heinous shit that actually occurred here, i would employ the producers/directors/runners of all the real-life docs on netflix like "making a murderer" or "the staircase" or whatever that get real viral, real fast and generate lots of online discussion and anticipation and present it that way.  while frontline type presentations are effective amongst people with a greater than 30 second attention span...for most of the country, you need a different, more clever approach to the presentation with cliffhangers and other techniques to make it compelling to a broader segment.

anyway, not really a productive contribution to the thread but i wish that all this really horrible shit we are being treated to through the hearings could be farther reaching.

Been saying this for awhile.  If they made Trump into the Tiger King and showed off his ridiculousness and delusions, everyone in the country would be watching.  It wouldn't even be a big stretch to do it that way.

[Satchel 6938]

2 hours ago, sidis said:

random thought about these hearings and their effectiveness.

as i said way, way upthread, i think the committee is doing a very nice presentation job on this and presenting a fairly persuasive and compelling case on 1/6 and the fact that trump, among many others, are actually culpable for this.  but despite the fact that they are doing a good job and even trying to generate interest doing prime time tv sessions, etc..., we know this is entirely ineffective because only political junkies are going to participate.

if i was king and responsible for stategizing how best to compel the average u.s. citizen to pay attention to the utterly heinous shit that actually occurred here, i would employ the producers/directors/runners of all the real-life docs on netflix like "making a murderer" or "the staircase" or whatever that get real viral, real fast and generate lots of online discussion and anticipation and present it that way.  while frontline type presentations are effective amongst people with a greater than 30 second attention span...for most of the country, you need a different, more clever approach to the presentation with cliffhangers and other techniques to make it compelling to a broader segment.

anyway, not really a productive contribution to the thread but i wish that all this really horrible shit we are being treated to through the hearings could be farther reaching.

Kinda like 2000 Mules drama and suspense but without all the batshit craziness?

[Sawbonz 27561]

20 minutes ago, NameAlreadyInUse said:

Been saying this for awhile.  If they made Trump into the Tiger King and showed off his ridiculousness and delusions, everyone in the country would be watching.  It wouldn't even be a big stretch to do it that way.

Or maybe you know just have all of the hearings during prime time so people can actually watch them?

Edited July 10, 2022 by Sawbonz

[Francisco 2.0 32392]

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/07/10/us/politics/cassidy-hutchinson-jan-6-testimony.html

 

Quote

The day before Cassidy Hutchinson was deposed for a fourth time by the Jan. 6 committee, the former Trump White House aide received a phone message that would dramatically change the plans of the panel and write a new chapter in American politics.

On that day in June, the caller told Ms. Hutchinson, as Liz Cheney, the committee’s vice chairwoman, later disclosed: A person “let me know you have your deposition tomorrow. He wants me to let you know he’s thinking about you. He knows you’re loyal. And you’re going to do the right thing when you go in for your deposition.”

 

Quote

At Ms. Hutchinson’s deposition the next day, committee members investigating the attack on the Capitol were so alarmed by what they considered a clear case of witness tampering — not to mention Ms. Hutchinson’s shocking account of President Donald J. Trump’s behavior on Jan. 6, 2021 — that they decided in a meeting on June 24, a Friday, to hold an emergency public hearing with Ms. Hutchinson as the surprise witness the following Tuesday.

The speed, people close to the committee said, was for two crucial reasons: Ms. Hutchinson was under intense pressure from Trump World, and panel members believed that getting her story out in public would make her less vulnerable, attract powerful allies and be its own kind of protection. The committee also had to move fast, the people said, to avoid leaks of some of the most explosive testimony ever heard on Capitol Hill.

 

Spoiler

In the two weeks since, Ms. Hutchinson’s account of an unhinged president who urged his armed supporters to march to the Capitol, lashed out at his Secret Service detail and hurled his lunch against a wall has turned her into a figure of both admiration and scorn — lauded by Trump critics as a 21st-century John Dean and attacked by Mr. Trump as a “total phony.”

Ms. Hutchinson’s testimony also pushed the committee to redouble its efforts to interview Pat A. Cipollone, Mr. Trump’s White House counsel, who appeared in private before the panel on Friday. His videotaped testimony is expected to be shown at the committee’s next public hearing on Tuesday.

Now unemployed and sequestered with family and a security detail, Ms. Hutchinson, 26, has developed an unlikely bond with Ms. Cheney, a Wyoming Republican and onetime aide to former Secretary of State Colin L. Powell during the George W. Bush administration — a crisis environment of another era when she learned to work among competing male egos. More recently, as someone ostracized by her party and stripped of her leadership post for her denunciations of Mr. Trump, Ms. Cheney admires the younger woman’s willingness to risk her alliances and professional standing by recounting what she saw in the final days of the Trump White House, friends say.

“I have been incredibly moved by young women that I have met and that have come forward to testify in the Jan. 6 committee,” Ms. Cheney said in concluding a recent speech at the Reagan Library in Simi Valley, Calif.

When she mentioned Ms. Hutchinson’s name, the audience erupted in applause.

Influence Beyond Her Years

The path that led a young Trump loyalist to become a star witness against the former president was not exactly prefigured by Ms. Hutchinson’s biography.

She grew up in Pennington, N.J., a one-square-mile village dating back to the 1600s whose most famous previous resident was Peter Benchley, the author of “Jaws.” Her father owned a tree-trimming service.

No one in her family had gone to college, but in 2015 Ms. Hutchinson left home for Christopher Newport University, an under-the-radar liberal arts institution in Newport News, Va., with a strict dress code.

Ms. Hutchinson selected political science as her major. She took two classes taught by the department chair at the time, Michelle Barnello.

“We have a fairly conservative student body, and while I think of Cassidy as someone who was committed to Republican principles, she didn’t stand out as a hard-liner,” Dr. Barnello said.

She remembered Ms. Hutchinson as convivial but also determined, and that she often sat in the front row of the classroom with her lacrosse-playing boyfriend.

In 2017, a year after spending a summer interning for Senator Ted Cruz, Republican of Texas, Ms. Hutchinson and her boyfriend each became summer interns for Republican House members — in her case, for Representative Steve Scalise, then the majority whip, who in June of that year was shot while playing softball with Republican colleagues. The following spring, Ms. Hutchinson was accepted for a White House internship, a celebrated achievement at Christopher Newport. The campus website and the political science department’s Facebook page posted stories about their high-achieving junior.

By luck of the draw, Ms. Hutchinson’s internship was in the White House Office of Legislative Affairs — where, unlike the coffee-fetching and tour-guiding requirements of a Capitol Hill internship, enrollees are expected to take notes at high-level meetings and to interact with senior staff members and House members. Former Trump White House officials said Ms. Hutchinson distinguished herself from the other interns as a hard worker with a good attitude. On graduation she landed a permanent job as the junior-most staff assistant on the House side of the Trump presidency’s legislative affairs operation, at a salary of $43,600.

“She kind of came in and took the place by storm,” said a former White House official, who like others who spoke highly of Ms. Hutchinson and asked for anonymity to avoid the public wrath of Mr. Trump and his allies. “Just an incredibly smart and driven person. She was the sort of person who worked so hard, I often had to tell her to slow down so that she wouldn’t burn out.”

During the first impeachment of Mr. Trump in 2019, Ms. Hutchinson was among the handful of legislative affairs staff members tasked with shoring up support among disgruntled House Republicans for the embattled president. In the end, not one of them defected, a triumph that reflected well on every White House staff member involved, including Ms. Hutchinson.

Some colleagues found it presumptuous that the young assistant so quickly came to refer to House members by their first names. But others could see that it worked: Ms. Hutchinson, they said, developed exceptionally strong contacts with representatives during her first year on the job.

“Trust me, nobody ever sat down and said, ‘Hey, Cassidy, you’re being too chummy with the members,’” recalled another colleague who asked for anonymity out of fear of inciting Mr. Trump. “You can be one of those assistants who’s rarely on the Hill. Or you could be like Cassidy, who took every advantage to help her get a better job in the future.”

Which quickly occurred. Ms. Hutchinson’s backstage work during the impeachment hearings put her in frequent contact with the influential chairman of the conservative House Freedom Caucus, Representative Mark Meadows. When he became Mr. Trump’s chief of staff in March 2020, he promptly poached Ms. Hutchinson from the legislative affairs office as his special assistant.

Her influence was soon apparent. Republican aides on Capitol Hill learned that Ms. Hutchinson was the way to get to Mr. Meadows, and that if they texted him she might be the one responding. She was in frequent contact on Mr. Meadows’s behalf with leading House Republicans like Representatives Kevin McCarthy, Jim Jordan and Elise Stefanik. One former colleague recalled that there were times when Mr. Meadows got staff members taken off Air Force One to make room for Ms. Hutchinson.

Some staff members begrudged her rise. “I think she became a victim of her own access and success,” said Ms. Hutchinson’s friend, Alyssa Farah Griffin, a former Trump White House communications director. “I’m sure that more senior people resented her for it.”

A New Lawyer

Early this year, a federal marshal knocked on Ms. Hutchinson’s door and served her with a subpoena to appear before the Jan. 6 committee. Unemployed and unable to pay for legal fees, she hired as her lawyer Stefan Passantino, a former Trump White House ethics lawyer. Mr. Trump’s Save America PAC paid for Mr. Passantino’s representation of Ms. Hutchinson, as it did for some other witnesses called before the panel.

Mr. Passantino had extensive financial ties to Mr. Trump’s orbit. Federal Election Commission reports show that his legal compliance firm received more than $1 million from Trump-related political action committees in the 2021-22 election cycle, and that in the previous cycle Marjorie Taylor Greene, a staunch Trump loyalist and a House candidate at the time, paid him more than $93,000 for his services.

Ms. Hutchinson’s first deposition to the committee was on Feb. 23, when it was not yet apparent to her that Mr. Passantino’s interests as a Trump affiliate might diverge from hers, two people close to the situation said. What was clear were her disclosures that morning and in two subsequent depositions to committee members, who found them startling as well as clear evidence of her proximity to power.

According to portions of her first three depositions made public, Ms. Hutchinson said she had heard Anthony M. Ornato, the deputy White House chief of staff, warn Mr. Meadows that intelligence reports were forecasting violence several days before Jan. 6. She also testified that by late November 2020, House Republicans were already pushing a plan for Vice President Mike Pence to overturn the election results.

But Ms. Hutchinson took pains to avoid speculating about the president. “I can’t speak to if Mr. Trump — yeah, I’ll leave it there,” she said at one point.

Over the next months, Ms. Hutchinson warmed to the idea of helping the committee’s investigation, according to a friend, but she did not detect the same willingness in Mr. Passantino.

“She realized she couldn’t call her attorney to say, ‘Hey, I’ve got more information,’” said the friend, who requested anonymity. “He was there to insulate the big guy.”

Mr. Passantino declined to comment.

At that point Ms. Hutchinson got in touch with Ms. Griffin, who had been cooperating with the committee herself. Ms. Griffin passed on Ms. Hutchinson’s concerns to Barbara Comstock, a former Republican congresswoman and outspoken critic of Mr. Trump. In an interview, Ms. Comstock said that she could have predicted Ms. Hutchinson’s predicament, recalling how she had once talked a young man out of joining the Trump administration. “I said, ‘You’re going to end up paying legal bills,’” Ms. Comstock recalled.

Ms. Comstock offered to start a legal-defense fund so that Ms. Hutchinson would not have to rely on a lawyer paid for by Trump affiliates. But this proved unnecessary. Jody Hunt, the former head of the Justice Department’s civil division under Jeff Sessions — Mr. Trump’s former attorney general and another pariah in Mr. Trump’s world — offered to represent her pro bono. Mr. Hunt accompanied Ms. Hutchinson to her fourth deposition in late June, when she felt more comfortable talking about Mr. Trump’s actions on Jan. 6. Everyone agreed it was time to speed up her public testimony.

Two realities have now taken hold for Ms. Hutchinson. One is that she will continue to offer information to the Jan. 6 committee, with Mr. Hunt as her counsel and Ms. Cheney as the committee’s designated interlocutor to her.

The other is that an uncertain future awaits her.

A former colleague in the White House legislative affairs office who remains on friendly terms with Ms. Hutchinson said that from the moment she got her subpoena, her goal in cooperating with the committee was to find the quickest way to put the entire ordeal behind her.

But, the friend said, this is only the beginning for her.

 

 

[atomheartbevo 89665]

Talked with an older relative who is a Trump, and I asked why so many people who had direct access to Trump, or were just one level away from him, keep saying all of this stuff that makes him look bad.

The response was “they’re idiots”. 

I told him you can hire one or two people who do stupid things, and they are idiots, but to borrow a saying, if you hire a bunch of idiots, then you’re the idiot.  

[WhatTheBuck 28781]

11 minutes ago, atomheartbevo said:

Talked with an older relative who is a Trump, and I asked why so many people who had direct access to Trump, or were just one level away from him, keep saying all of this stuff that makes him look bad.

The response was “they’re idiots”. 

I told him you can hire one or two people who do stupid things, and they are idiots, but to borrow a saying, if you hire a bunch of idiots, then you’re the idiot.  

You’re related to the Trumps?

[Biff Tannen 45684]

1 hour ago, atomheartbevo said:

Talked with an older relative who is a Trump, and I asked why so many people who had direct access to Trump, or were just one level away from him, keep saying all of this stuff that makes him look bad.

The response was “they’re idiots”. 

I told him you can hire one or two people who do stupid things, and they are idiots, but to borrow a saying, if you hire a bunch of idiots, then you’re the idiot.  

I'm surprised this person even admitted that the hearings were making him look bad, or that they even exist at all.