CNN Silent on Excluding Exculpatory Evidence in Passantino Report

In 2022, CNN published multiple articles targeting Stefan Passantino, a former Trump White House attorney, who then spent the next two years defending his law license against bar complaints. Passantino claims CNN excluded exculpatory evidence from their initial report, despite the network publishing transcripts containing that evidence on their website the following day. Now, CNN is refusing to answer questions about this omission.

On Tuesday, the network declined to comment to The Federalist regarding why they seemingly disregarded exculpatory evidence in their coverage of allegations against Passantino, the former deputy White House ethics counsel. Passantino had represented Cassidy Hutchinson during her initial dealings with the January 6 Committee.

On December 21, 2022, CNN published an “exclusive” headlined, “Trump’s former White House ethics lawyer told Cassidy Hutchinson to give misleading testimony to January 6 committee, sources say.” The report, citing “sources familiar with the committee’s work,” claimed that Passantino advised Hutchinson to mislead the committee about her recollections. Hutchinson later changed counsel and became a key witness for Democrats, famously recounting secondhand claims about Donald Trump’s alleged attempt to take control of a Secret Service vehicle. These claims were immediately disputed by the individuals involved.

CNN’s report included a denial from Passantino but omitted key portions of Hutchinson’s September 14, 2022, testimony, in which she explicitly stated Passantino “didn’t tell [her] to lie” and even advised her “not to lie.” CNN later published this testimony as part of a transcript on December 22, 2022, but only briefly referenced Hutchinson’s comments in a follow-up article that same day.

The follow-up piece, titled “Cassidy Hutchinson told the January 6 committee she felt pressure from Trump allies not to talk and instead risk ‘contempt,’” focused on allegations that Hutchinson’s initial legal representation, funded by Trump allies, pressured her to stop cooperating with the committee. It did not give significant weight to Hutchinson’s admission that Passantino acted in her best interest and told her to tell the truth.

Further complicating the narrative, an October report by House Republicans investigating the January 6 Committee revealed Hutchinson had been communicating directly with Vice-Chair Liz Cheney without Passantino’s knowledge while he was representing her. The report also highlighted messages between Hutchinson and television commentator Alyssa Farah Griffin in which Hutchinson admitted Passantino was acting in her best interest and that she agreed with his advice.

Speaking on Tucker Carlson’s podcast this month, Passantino revealed he was notified of a bar investigation just hours after CNN’s initial story was published. He suggested individuals on the January 6 Committee, including contributors like Adam Kinzinger, may have been involved in providing the information to CNN.

“What was particularly painful for me,” Passantino said, “was two hours after that story breaks, I then get a notification from the District of Columbia Bar, saying: This is to notify you that we have an open bar investigation relating to all of this conduct.”

Passantino also recalled a conversation with a CNN reporter before the publication of the first article. He urged the reporter to include exculpatory documents they had in their possession, stating, “If CNN is going to run a story identifying [me] as a criminal, and you are in possession of … exculpatory documents, you have an obligation to run that.” According to Passantino, the reporter responded, “That’s not newsworthy.”

CNN has not responded to The Federalist’s inquiries about these claims or their decision to omit Hutchinson’s full testimony from their initial reporting.

Passantino faced two bar complaints threatening his law license in Washington, D.C., and Georgia. However, legal authorities in both jurisdictions dismissed the misconduct allegations in March after thorough investigations.

In October, Passantino filed his own bar complaints through America First Legal against Liz Cheney and the director of the 65 Project, the group responsible for the Georgia complaint. Additionally, in September, a federal judge denied a motion to dismiss Passantino’s defamation lawsuit against an MSNBC legal pundit who had repeated CNN’s claims that he advised Cassidy Hutchinson to lie.

Tristan Justice is a national correspondent for The Federalist and co-author of “Fat and Unhappy: How ‘Body Positivity’ Is Killing Us (and How to Save Yourself).” He has written for The Washington Examiner and The Daily Signal, with his work featured in Real Clear Politics and Fox News. Tristan graduated from George Washington University with a degree in political science and a minor in journalism.