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OPINION: This article may contain commentary which reflects the author’s opinion.
A Republican committee chairman has said that “all” deposition tapes from the now-defunct January 6 Committee have disappeared after the former chairman of that panel claimed he didn’t have any expectation of keeping them.
Committee on House Administration Subcommittee on Oversight Rep. Barry Loudermilk (R-Ga.) told Just the News TV on Thursday, “All of the videotapes of all depositions are gone.”
“We found out about this early in the investigation when I received a call from someone who was looking for some information off one of the videotapes, and we started searching, and we had none,” Loudermilk explained. “I wrote a letter to (Jan. 6 committee Chair) Bennie Thompson asking for them. And he confirmed that they did not preserve those (tapes). He didn’t feel that they had to.”
However, Loudermilk added that “according to House rules, you have to preserve any data and information and documents that are used in an official proceeding, which they did. (The House Democrats) actually aired portions of these tapes on their televised hearings, which means they had to keep those. Yet he chose not to.”
Newsmax added: The congressman explained that contrasting the footage with the current Jan. 6 evidence could help piece together what happened that day. Loudermilk points out that former White House aide Cassidy Hutchinson has changed her testimony once before and that transcripts alone won’t do justice.
“When you got someone like Cassidy, who has significantly changed her testimony, I want to see what her body language is when she gave her original testimony. I want to see what her voice inflection is. Was she very confident in what she was saying at that time but then later decided to change it?
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“This is why it’s so important that we have those videotapes,” the congressman added, “and I believe that’s probably why we don’t have them … I believe they exist somewhere. We’ve just got to find where all these videos are.”
A lawsuit filed by a former attorney for January 6 witness Hutchinson appears to undermine claims she publicly made during her testimony before the Democrat-controlled committee.
According to Just the News, the suit also cites text messages indicating “that she initially did not want to comply with the January 6 committee’s investigation and appeared to prepare to leak information about the committee’s proceedings to the media independently of her lawyer.”
These texts originate from just before her initial closed-door interview with the special committee investigating the January 6 riot. They precede her revision of the account of events that occurred after parting ways with her first lawyer, Stefan Passantino. She claimed that Passantino had exerted pressure on her to remain “loyal” to former President Donald Trump.
The texts were added as evidence to Passantino’s lawsuit against Andrew Weissmann, currently an MSNBC legal analyst, former prosecutor, and deputy to Special Counsel Robert Mueller, alleging that he “publicly impugned (Passantino’s reputation), claiming that Mr. Passantino coached his client, Cassidy Hutchinson, to lie in congressional testimony.”
“This is an insidious lie,” the lawsuit claims. “Mr. Passantino never coached Ms. Hutchinson to lie, nor did he attempt to shape her testimony in any way.”
Texts purportedly from Hutchinson also appear to indicate that the former aide to Trump’s chief of staff, Mark Meadows, initially acknowledged her reluctance to cooperate with the committee, despite Passantino’s encouragement for her to do so, Just the News reported.
“Like how on earth are they doing this to you,” one unidentified person asked the former Trump White House aide.
“I don’t know. But I don’t want to comply. Stefan wants me to comply,” Hutchinson replied.
The J6 committee, which was hand-selected by then-Speaker Nancy Pelosi and included Trump opponent and then-Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyoming) portrayed Hutchinson as a willing participant.
In a different exchange, Hutchinson seems to convey skepticism about Passantino’s media strategy regarding her deposition. She suggests that she might independently leak information to the media, separate from her lawyer, to ensure that her “narrative” is seen first.
“So I want to. Stefan wants to wait till after my depo. I have to go in person next Tuesday. He doesn’t think the committee will leak it (“they promised they won’t”) but I don’t trust them,” Hutchinson said to an unknown individual. “And I want it to be my/our narrative that’s out there first,” she added.
She also referred to the committee’s inquiry as ‘bs.”
