When Stefan Passantino (91L) graduated from Emory University School of Law, he had already started to make a name for himself. Serving as the Emory Law Review managing editor in 1991, he was described as one of the “brightest” in his class by Barton LLP Partner Eric Sleeper (86L), who was the editor in chief of the Bankruptcy Developments Journal at Emory Law.
“Being a managing editor of the Emory Law Journal, Stefan had to have had a pretty solid record at Emory Law,” Sleeper said.
Passantino went on to work as former U.S. President Donald Trump’s deputy White House counsel and deputy assistant to the president. He also was a partner at Michael Best & Friedrich LLP — which is led by former White House Chief of Staff for Trump Reince Priebus — earning a place on the law school’s “select notable alumni” list.
But now, 32 years after graduating, Passantino has garnered national criticism for allegedly advising former White House aide Cassidy Hutchinson to “focus on protecting the president” according to several closed-door testimonies Hutchinson had with the U.S. House of Representatives Jan. 6 committee. Hutchinson, who served as assistant to former Chief of Staff Mark Meadows during the Trump administration, alleged that Passantino also told her to say she did not recall certain events — such as witnessing the former president allegedly tackle a Secret Service agent on Jan. 6 — despite Hutchinson saying she actually remembered the events.
“You don't expect one of the best and brightest to end up in the type of situation Stefan now appears to be in,” Sleeper said.
Although Passantino did not explicitly deny this accusation, he wrote that she did not lie in any interviews in an email to the Wheel.
“As with all my clients during my 30 years of practice, I represented Ms. Hutchinson honorably, ethically and fully consistent with her sole interests as she communicated them to me,” Passantino wrote. “I believed Ms. Hutchinson was being truthful and cooperative with the Committee throughout the several interview sessions in which I represented her.”
In addition to alleging that Passantino told her to not recall certain events, Hutchinson claimed that Passantino was unclear about who was paying him to represent her and breached confidentiality.
Accusation: ‘I don’t recall’
Questions surrounding the authenticity of Hutchinson’s testimony initially arose during the Jan. 6 committee’s last public hearing on Dec. 19, 2022. In her opening statement to the committee, California Rep. Zoe Lofgren (D-18) alluded to an unnamed lawyer who had attempted to manipulate their witness’s testimony to protect Trump and hide information about the events leading up to the Jan. 6 Capitol riot. About five minutes later, Passantino’s biography was reportedly removed from the Michael Best & Friedrich LLP website, according to Above the Law.
Two days after Lofgren’s claims, CNN reported that Passantino was the aforementioned lawyer. The next day, the Jan. 6 committee released an interview transcript from September 2022 where Hutchinson recounted her discussions with Passantino and accused him of telling her to withhold information.
Specifically, Hutchinson alleged that Passantino told her to say that she does not recall an event at all if she did not remember the individual details of the event. In the interview, Hutchinson recalled asking Passantino whether she would be perjuring herself — or intentionally lying under oath — by neglecting to recall incidents that she largely remembers but cannot recall “every little detail.” Hutchinson said Passantino remained firm in his instructions.
In the Jan. 6 committee interview, Hutchinson said Passantino told her “the committee doesn’t know what you can and can’t recall, so we want to be able to use that as much as we can unless you really, really remember something very clearly. And that’s when you give a short, sweet response.”
Passantino’s concern with Trump’s interests at the expense of his client’s interests raises red flags, Georgia State University Professor of Law Emeritus Roy Sobelson (72C) said.
“The mere fact that he is telling her, 'I am your lawyer, but I have to protect somebody's interest,' that right away is a no-no,’” Sobelson said. “No matter whose interests he protects, he's basically screwing the other person, or at least there's the possibility of that happening.”
In her interview in late February 2022, Hutchinson explained that she “froze” when the Jan. 6 committee asked her about the situation that unfolded between Trump and the Secret Service agent. She recalled saying something along the lines of “I never heard anything about that,” but she grew increasingly anxious when the committee reiterated the question multiple times.
During a break shortly after being questioned about the altercation, Hutchinson said she expressed concern to Passantino about having to lie, stating that “I looked at Stefan, and I said, ‘Stefan, I am f—--.’ And he was like, ‘Don’t freak out. You’re fine.’ I said, ‘No, Stefan, I’m f—--. I just lied.’ And he said, ‘You didn’t lie.’”
Hutchinson added that Passantino allegedly told her “I don’t recall” is an “entirely acceptable” answer for the situation.
“He said, ‘They don’t know what you know, Cassidy,’” Hutchinson said. “‘They don’t know that you can recall some of these things.’”
Sobelson said that if Hutchinson’s claims that Passantino told her to deny remembering events she actually knew about are true, then Passantino’s advice would “obviously” be considered lying.
“You don't need a law degree to know that,” Sobelson added.
Atlanta’s John Marshall Law School Associate Professor B. Michael Mears agreed, noting a “competent, ethical lawyer” would utilize what their client knows to figure out the truth and advise them to not volunteer information. He added that telling a client to not remember information is subornation of perjury, which is a felony.
“I'm shocked, quite frankly, that an attorney would be so brazen in advising a client to commit perjury,” Mears said. “Under our rules of ethics, you can't tell a client not to remember something.”
In the transcript, Hutchinson explained that although she followed Passantino’s advice, she was battling a “moral struggle” in her mind the whole time.
“In my heart I knew where my loyalties lied, and my loyalties lied with the truth,” Hutchinson said. “And I never wanted to diverge from that. You know, I never wanted or thought that I would be the witness that I have become, because I thought that more people would be willing to speak out too.”
Additionally, Hutchinson said she was scared of the repercussions of not following Passantino’s advice — she felt like she had “Trump looking over [her] shoulder.”
“I knew in some fashion it would get back to him if I said anything that he would find disloyal,” Hutchinson said. “The prospect of that genuinely scared me. You know, I’d seen this world ruin people's lives or try to ruin people's careers. I’d seen how vicious they can be.”
Accusation: Unclear payment
According to Hutchinson, Passantino also allegedly withheld information about who was paying for her legal fees. Such information would usually be found in an engagement letter, a document that details the legal relationship between a lawyer and their client, in order for the client to determine if there was a conflict of interest, Mears said.
Additionally, Hutchinson claimed in the interview that Passantino did not have her sign an engagement letter during their first call on Feb. 7, 2022.
Though not having an engagement letter is ethically sound, refusing to disclose who was paying for Hutchinson’s legal fees would “come close to a violation of candor to the client,” Mears clarified.
“If you want to know at the end, we’ll let you know, but we’re not telling people where funding is coming from right now,” Hutchinson said in the interview, quoting Passantino. “Don’t worry, we’re taking care of you.”
Passantino wrote in an email to the Wheel that it is “not uncommon for a third-party, including a political committee, to cover a client’s fees at the client’s request.” Sobelson agreed, noting that the issue only arose when Passantino allegedly refused to tell Hutchinson who was paying.
Ultimately, Hutchinson said in the interview that she suspected that her legal fees were being covered by allies of Trump, whom she refers to as “Trump world.” She said this was confirmed in April 2022 when the Jan. 6 committee requested she do a third interview, and Passantino allegedly told her “Trump world will not continue paying your legal bills if you don’t have that second subpoena.”
Hutchinson alleged that Passantino said he preferred for her to be “extremely unwilling” to have the third interview in hopes that the Jan. 6 committee would “completely back off.” In the interview, Hutchinson said that if she was going to engage with the committee, Passantino did not want her interview to appear voluntary — she needed a subpoena, which is a legal document commanding someone to testify.
“It was obvious that they were sort of putting conditions on this, quote, free lawyer,” Sobelson said. “Obviously the purpose of demanding a subpoena was … so they could make it look like she was not cooperating voluntarily.”
Accusation: Breach of confidentiality
Hutchinson also claimed in the interview that Passantino discussed details of her case with his law partners and other attorneys in May 2022, even when she expressed that she did not want him to, fearing that it would “put a target on [her] back.”
“I said, ‘Stefan, I really would prefer if you wouldn't talk to your law partners about this, but I know that you're probably going to anyway,’” Hutchinson said. “And he said, ‘Cass, I've never steered you wrong. Let me just do this. It's the right thing for you. We need to keep you in good graces in Trump world right now.’"
In the interview, Hutchinson recounted a similar experience with the media that same day when political journalist Maggie Haberman called Passantino, who allegedly answered the phone despite Hutchinson claiming she told him not to. Hutchinson claimed that Passantino told her to not worry, because Haberman was “not going to make it a big deal.”
Sobelson explained that if Hutchinson’s accusations are true, Passantino’s actions would be a breach of attorney-client confidentiality.
“Anything you learn in the course of the representation is, quote, confidential, which means you're supposed to keep it to yourself or you can share it with your partners and people who are joining in the representation, unless the client asked you to, or at least agrees to have you reveal it, unless it's public information,” Sobelson said.
Passantino denied the claims of breaching confidentiality, writing in an email to the Wheel that “external communications made on Ms. Hutchinson’s behalf while I was her counsel were made with her express authorization.”
Hutchinson’s public testimony
News broke on June 9, 2022 that Hutchinson dropped Passantino and would instead be represented by Jody Hunt, an attorney with Alston & Bird LLP. Hunt previously served as the U.S. Assistant Attorney General for the Civil Division of the Department of Justice.
“It is not uncommon for clients to change lawyers because their interests or strategies change,” Passantino wrote in an email to the Wheel.
Less than a month later, Hutchinson publicly testified before the Jan. 6 committee in a widely-watched televised hearing on June 28, 2022.
During her testimony, Hutchinson stated that Trump knew he had lost the 2020 presidential election two weeks after Election Day, but continued to push to overturn the results. She recounted Trump’s alleged altercation with the Secret Service, which she had previously denied knowing about while Passantino represented her. She added that Trump expressed approval for the rioters carrying weapons and chanting about hanging former U.S. Vice President Mike Pence.
After her testimony, The New York Times described Hutchinson as “the most powerful witness yet.” Media outlets and Twitter users compared Hutchinson to John Dean, the former White House counsel to former U.S. President Richard Nixon whose testimony played a crucial role in describing Nixon’s involvement in the Watergate cover-up.
“IT WAS A BIG DEAL AND IT WILL GROW BIGGER!” Dean tweeted on June 28, 2022. “Thank you, Cassidy Hutchinson for delivering important information before the J6 Committee.”
Looking forward
The Jan. 6 committee referred Hutchinson’s accusations to the U.S. Department of Justice.
Sleeper added that every state where Passantino is a member of the bar has the right to review his status, although they might wait to see where the Department of Justice’s investigation leads.
Sleeper noted that "any disciplinary determination likely would await the results of investigations of the DOJ, or others, and their prosecution of any criminal charges. Those sorts of charges, if proven true, could prove fateful to a legal career."
Mears explained that if a complaint is filed with a state bar association Passantino belongs to — which includes Georgia, New York and Washington, D.C. — the bar would open an investigation. This would then go to the state supreme court, which would decide what disciplinary action to take if Passantino is found guilty, such as disbarment.
“Presumably, any continuing investigations and the corresponding determinations whether to prosecute will come down during the year ahead,” Sleeper said.
Under the American Bar Association’s Model Rules of Professional Conduct, which have been adopted by every state besides California, disbarment in one jurisdiction is grounds for disbarment in other jurisdictions.
Currently, Passantino has not been charged with a crime, and he told the Wheel that the Jan. 6 committee “never reached out” to him to get the “facts.” The Georgia, New York and Washington, D.C. state bar associations currently consider Passantino to be in good standing with no disciplinary history.
“Unfortunately, the Committee never reached out to me to get the facts and I look forward to all of the full truth of this matter coming to light,” Passantino wrote.
No matter if Passantino is guilty or not, Sleeper said Hutchinson’s accusations against Passantino are part of a larger issue, noting that “Trump and some of his associates is where legal careers go to die.”
"Trump has darkened various legal careers, hopefully the same fate does not befall Stefan too after having such a notable time as a student at Emory Law," Sleeper said.
