Andrew Weissmann, a popular MSNBC legal analyst and former prosecutor has learned that a federal court located in Washington, D.C. has ruled that a defamation lawsuit against him will now be moving forward. The ruling comes from allegations brought against him by former Trump White House attorney Stefan Passantino, who says that Weissmann defamed him in a social media post on the topic of the Jan. 6 investigation.
I guess it’s a bad time to be a raging liberal who hates President-elect Donald Trump and his supporters. You know what they say? You reap what you sow. And the left is about to reap a whole lot.
“The dispute traces back to a public statement made by Weissmann, who suggested that Passantino coached Cassidy Hutchinson, a key witness in the House committee’s January 6 investigation, to lie under oath. Passantino, who briefly served as legal counsel to Hutchinson during the hearings, denies the accusations and contends that Weissmann’s claim has tarnished his professional reputation,” Trending Politics News reported.
“Defendant Andrew Weissmann—a partisan former prosecutor and top deputy to Special Counsel Robert Mueller turned MSNBC “legal analyst”—has publicly impugned that reputation, claiming that Mr. Passantino coached his client, Cassidy Hutchinson, to lie in congressional testimony,” the lawsuit went on to state. “This is an insidious lie. Mr. Passantino never coached Ms. Hutchinson to lie, nor did he attempt to shape her testimony in any way.”
“Hutchinson, known for her explosive testimony about the events surrounding the Capitol breach, later changed her legal representation and alleged in her memoir that Passantino encouraged her to provide misleading testimony. Passantino has refuted these assertions, maintaining that his counsel adhered strictly to ethical guidelines. According to court filings cited by The Federalist, Passantino insists Weissmann’s remarks about him were both false and defamatory,” the report continued.
In September 2023, Passantino filed the lawsuit against Weissman, who served as a former prosecutor and NYU law professor, along with hosting a podcast for MSNBC. The suit was the result of a post Weissmann shared on X.
Hunt also is Cassidy Hutchinson’s good lawyer. (Not the one who coached her to lie) And he is the guy who took notes of Trump saying, when Mueller was appointed, quoting him as saying “I’m f….d” https://t.co/HFGmwI9f0B
— Andrew Weissmann (weissmann11 on Threads/Insta)🌻 (@AWeissmann_) September 15, 2023
The year before that, in Dec. 2022, CNN made the claim that Passantino, who was the chief ethics lawyer in the Trump administration, was identified as the lawyer who reportedly counseled his former client, Hutchinson, to inform the committee that she couldn’t remember certain details that she actually could recall.
Weissmann has defended his statements, describing Passantino’s claims in court as “incomplete and misleading,” according to Law & Crime. He has not publicly retracted the remarks and appears prepared to contest the lawsuit. The lawsuit alleges that Weissmann harmed Passantino’s legal reputation with a tweet. Initially, the case was assigned to U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan, who is also presiding over the waning Jan. 6 case involving the president-elect. However, in December 2023, the case was reassigned to U.S. District Judge Loren Ali Khan.
In the court filing, Passantino points to Hutchinson’s own sworn testimony, where she explicitly stated that Passantino never instructed her to lie and, in fact, encouraged honesty. Passantino asserts that Weissmann’s accusations were made with actual malice, driven by partisan animus due to his prior affiliation with former President Trump. As a result, Passantino is seeking damages exceeding $75,000, claiming loss of income, reputational harm, and emotional distress. Weissmann denies the allegations, arguing that his statements were opinions protected by legal privileges and that Passantino cannot demonstrate actual malice or significant damages.
Lots of proverbial heads are going to roll in the coming four years. This is just the beginning of holding people accountable for making unsubstantiated claims.
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