Defamation lawsuit against attorney Andrew Weissmann moves forward

A federal judge did not throw out former President Donald Trump's lawyer's defamation case against former Assistant U.S. Attorney Andrew Weissmann.

Weissmann alleged that Stefan Passantino, an attorney who served in the White House under Trump, coached former White House aide Cassidy Hutchinson to lie in front of Congress. 

"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,'" Weissmann wrote in a post on X last year.

Passantino said in the lawsuit that Weissmann’s tweet was a "lie and a "smear," according to Law and Crime.

U.S. District Judge Loren AliKhan tossed out one point of the lawsuit on Monday, stating it “falls short of the heightened standard” of showing how Weissman's tweet could have damaged Passantino financially.  However, the defamation claim remains.

Hutchinson is a former White House aide who testified before the House committee investigating the Jan. 6, attack on the Capitol in 2021. Her testimony was central in the committee's report on the event.

In November, Just the News reported that Hutchison had made significant changes to her first testimony to the committee, filing errata sheets almost seven months after her first interview. The errata sheets identified Hutchinson’s account of the incident in the presidential vehicle—the Beast—as a later addition to her closed-door testimony.

Hutchison claims that she changed her testimony because her first lawyer, Passantino, pressured her to stay “loyal” to President Trump in her responses.