We previously discussed the defamation case against NYU Law Professor and MSNBC legal analyst Andrew Weissmann. He is being sued by lawyer Stefan Passantino after Weissmann said that he coached former Trump White House aide Cassidy Hutchinson to “lie” to Congress. At the time, I wrote that “it is hard to see how Weissmann can avoid a trial.” U.S. District Judge Loren AliKhan apparently agrees. She just rejected Weissmann’s motion to dismiss the case.
The controversial former aide to Special Counsel Robert Mueller (and NYU law professor) is being sued after declaring that attorney Stefan Passantino (who represented Hutchinson before Congress) told her to lie.
Weissmann’s controversial commentary was not a surprise to many critics.
Many of us questioned Mueller hiring Weissmann given his reputation for stretching legal authority and perceived political bias. Weissmann reportedly congratulated acting Attorney General Sally Yates after she ordered the Justice Department not to assist President Donald Trump on his immigration ban. The Supreme Court would ultimately affirm Trump’s underlying authority, but Yates refused to allow the Justice Department to assist a sitting president in defending that authority. Weissmann gushed in an email to her, writing “I am so proud. And in awe. Thank you so much.”
As noted earlier, Weissmann seemed to respond to those criticisms by aggressively proving them true. Weissmann has only become more controversial as an MSNBC analyst. He called on Justice Department officials to refuse to assist in the investigation of abuses in the Russian collusion investigation. While opposing investigations involving Democrats, he has seemingly supported every possible charge against Trump or his associates.
What Weissmann often lacked in precedent, he made up for in hyperbole. That signature is at the heart of the current lawsuit. On September 13, 2023, Weissmann was referring to Judy Hunt and noted on Twitter (now X) that “Hunt also is Cassidy Hutchinson’s good lawyer. (Not the one who coached her to lie).”
In making this claim against Passantino, Weissmann actually triggered the “per se” defamation standard twice. These are categories that have been treated as defamatory per se. The allegation against Passantino would not only constitute criminal conduct but also unethical professional conduct. Passantino denounces the statement as an “insidious lie” and “smear.”
AliKahn noted that “At her fifth deposition, Ms. Hutchinson discussed a line of questioning from her first deposition about the January 6 incident in the Presidential limousine,” AliKhan wrote. “She explained that, during a break after facing repeated questions on the topic, she had told Mr. Passantino in private, ‘I’m f*****. I just lied.’ Mr. Passantino responded, ‘You didn’t lie. . . . They don’t know what you know, Cassidy. They don’t know that you can recall some of these things. So you [sic] saying ‘I don’t recall’ is an entirely acceptable response to this.’”
Hutchinson repeatedly confirmed that Passantino “never told me to lie,” “didn’t tell me to lie,” and “He told me not to lie.”
While Judge AliKhan on Monday tossed out the second count in the complaint as lacking foundation for the claim of financial harm, she refused to dismiss Passantino’s defamation claim and moved the case forward toward trial. That could prove embarrassing as Passantino’s team searches for evidence of malice in his emails and other communications.
Here is the opinion: Passantino v. Weissmann
Jonathan Turley is the Shapiro Professor of Public Interest Law at George Washington University and the author of “The Indispensable Right: Free Speech in an Age of Rage.”
Andrew Weissman should be recognized as the patron Saint of Over Charging and Suborning Perjury. There were several examples of this during the Enron prosecutions. Most, if not all, of those sent to prison for the Enron scandal deserved what they got. I was an Enron officer was upon a time (well before the 2001 bankruptcy) and was fired by a fellow who later spent 4 years in Federal prison. I stayed close to many who got caught up in the mess. Weissman was so anxious to get easy convictions that he charged innocent people and promised leniency if they perjured themselves. I know a man nearly bankrupted by this, but he refused to lie and eventually all charges were dropped. Weissman deserves a world-class reaming.
I love headlines…
‘They’re terrified’: TX Republicans fear Dem surge with 2.5M new voters added since 2018
What? Republicans are terrified of voters? How come? What if Republicans actually wanted to govern and put forth policies they wanted to govern with? Yea I know, wishful thinking.
https://www.alternet.org/texas-republicans-dem-surge/
* In what other states are the 2.5 mill new Texans registered?
All kinds of loopholes. Mail ins?
* There’s a reason for ELECTION DAY. DAY.
* There aren’t any “elections” in third worlds. Zero security. If Trump wins he should verify that win with randomly selected counties nationwide and crossreferencing names , soc sec etc among the States.
I the last election everyone presumed he was looking for 14 thou votes for ztrump. Au contrary money ami. 14 thou false votes for Bidet.
Did he cry anti-Semitism yet?
* What is the evidence of Passantino actually said anything about, I can’t recall? If it’s CH word only she’s a known liar. The correct response from P Passantino would have been advice to CD to go back in and say–> I wasn’t being completely truthful and then say what is truthful.
What’s the evidence
* CH not CD
* in private
Jury nullification so Weissman is covered.
Evidence is a strange thing actually. In the OJ trial the key was somewhere in the glasses that were dropped outside Mezzaluna. Perhaps the dev1l dropped them. Provide evidence.
* Passantino can push it up the line on appeals and twist Weizmann’s arm until he says nuncle. Passantino was accused of having committed a crime.
Biden says Israel’s response should be “proportional” and don’t dare touch their nuclear weapons facilities.
(A) proportional is a beta make childless cat lady pencil neck feminized dweeb word, and the concept is stupid because it just incentivizes more attacks. Anyone who has actually had to live in the real world knows an overwhelming response is called for as a deterrent otherwise Israel is just committing national suicide (which perhaps this ridiculous administration actually wants).
(B) why is Biden so zealous that the world’s foremost state sponsor of terrorism get nuclear weapons? Does he secretly want the human race to be wiped out?
Biden should shut up.
The most fundimental reason that Iran should not have Nukes is because they will Nuke Israel.
The US has no skin in that game.
It is not americans that will die from Iranian Nukes.
While Israel can respond as they wish my personal advice is to target their nukes, target their oil, target their leaders.
But leave the Iranian people alone.
Netenyahu told the Iranians he was NOT the enemy of the iranian people – only their leaders.
He should act accordingly.
Regardless IRan has committed multiple acts of war against Israel.
If it was withing Israel’s power to do to Iran what it is doing to Gaza, it would be justified in doing so.
We all prefer that citizens not suffer for the deeds of their leaders – but citizens are NOT inherently innocent when their leaders are evil.
Agreed, and I believe Israel will ignore Biden on this one. They are starting to realize that they have to be able to take care of business themselves without having to depend on the US or anyone else. It’s probably hard for us to imagine how frustrating it is to them to have us interfere by telling them they can’t do what is needed to secure their homeland … and to leak their operational plans as our state department did recently. May Israel be blessed with Trump winning this election.
Iran believes that acquiring nuclear weapons is essential for deterrence, a strategy employed by many nations that already possess them. The country has strategically placed its nuclear facilities deep underground, making them difficult to target and destroy. Additionally, these facilities are located far inside the country, making them less vulnerable to bombing raids. Some argue that Israel’s actions, such as targeting top Hezbollah commanders and Iranian military advisors, have provoked Iran’s pursuit of nuclear capabilities. There’s a belief that Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu’s aggressive approach towards ending HAMAS and the treatment of Palestinians is straining Israel’s position. There are concerns that Israel’s actions could strain its support, especially with the recent incursion into Lebanon.
Hey Anonymous, your comment sounded even worse in it’s original Farsi!
“Some argue that Israel’s …targeting top Hezbollah commanders and Iranian military advisors have provoked Iran’s pursuit of nuclear capabilities”. Ok genius Jew hater, Israel took out the leaders 3 days ago and Iran has been pursuing nukes since Obama was in the WH. Care to expound?
He’s an idiot. Iran is on record saying many times it wants to annihilate Israel with nukes. The idea Iran, the world’s largest state sponsor of terrorism, wants them for self defense or that Israel’s actions have provoked Iran’s nuclear weapons program is so disconnected from reality as to be laughable.
Iran believes that acquiring nuclear weapons is essential for deterrence, a strategy employed by many nations that already possess them.
Ah! Hello Ilhan Omar; nice to have you check in. The foreign affairs intellect of The Squad is always good for Americans to see on display! Any comment on what Iran’s ongoing chants of “Death To The Great Satan/Death To America” mean?
For those of us older than your fellow Squad member Another Odd Communist, the initial Iranian claim that Obama and Kerry supported was that Iran needed nuclear power generation to support its economy and population. Because when Iran’s floating on a sea of oil and natural gas and have no coal deposits, the only way they can generate power is through nuclear power.
Well, that’s how Obama and Kerry with their Give Iran Nukes Treaty sold it in the early days of the Obama presidency. No mention of “Iran needs a nuclear deterrent”.
But now the long history of the nations surrounding Iran that have repeatedly launched both military and terrorist attacks on Iran supports the new claim that Iran needs nuclear weapons for deterrence.
And The Squad’s greatest defense of Iran needing a deterrent is that Israel dared to kill the top Hamas, Hezbollah, and Iranian IRG leaders that have repeatedly been launching terrorist attacks on Israeli citizens since the ayatollah’s theocracy subjugated the Iranian people in the 1970’s.
Decades of terrorist attacks and the October 7th butchery aren’t provocations… but killing the terrorist leaders of those terrorists and the IRG terrorist enablers is what actual provocation looks like.
The most fundimental reason that Iran should not have Nukes is because they will Nuke Israel. The US has no skin in that game. It is not americans that will die from Iranian Nukes.
And this is the danger of Isolationist Theory. We had no skin in the game of WWII for the first 2+ years of that war either. Until Germany sinking American merchant ships and Pearl Harbor suddenly made FDR decide we do have skin in that game after all. Ditto for WWI… although we did escape all but the nine or ten months of that five year war before German aggression forced American boots in to the front lines
And now, today, we have no skin in the game after 12 years of Democrats allowing Iran to attack Americans and fund terrorism after we allowed the IRG to help the Taliban kill American troops with sophisticated IEDs and training their terrorists to be a more effective fighting force. Those dead Americans say we’ve long had skin in the game where Iran is concerned.
And there’s no way (apparently) that after Iran gets nukes, they would give a small nuke to a terrorist and use the billions at their disposal to slip a suicide bomber into a major American harbour of The Great Satan, like New York or Los Angeles, and detonate that nuke. Thus isolationist theory says Americans have no skin in the game.
Or, if Iran does attack Israel with a nuke, the predictable Israeli response will be an overwhelming nuclear response of their own.
Isolationist theory says the nuclear aftermath wouldn’t affect any of America’s interests, so we have no skin in that game. Isolationist Theory is as badly flawed in America today as it was in the UK when Neville Chamberlain returned form meeting Hitler and said “Peace in our time”.
It’s not a secret.
Proportional responses do not win wars. Wars end when a non-proportional war makes one side know that accepting defeat is better than decimation.
We only need to look at the end of our war with Japan.
The Bidens of the world are the cause of war, proven by the number of wars that have broken out under his administration.
* It’s a secret?
There is a word that has fallen from favor in our modern lexicon. mammon
noun
mam·mon ˈma-mən
often capitalized
: material wealth or possessions especially as having a debasing influence
you cannot serve God and mammon
—Matthew 6:24. Mammon is the god of Weissmann and the woman who was convinced to lie. They were both willing to bear false witness against a man in order to walk the streets of gold. As has been prophesied their path will only lead to poverty and their souls have turned to worms. They will scream for relief of the pain that they have brought upon themselves but their compatriots will say they never knew them. The final disbursement of their mammon will be distributed amongst their leaching lawyers. A fate well deserved.
Mamar in Spanish is the verb to suck 🐓. Conjugation of the verb is eerily close to mammon yet both are descriptive of these deviant little worms.
October Surprise
Harris and Walz are a couple of Communists and are completely incapable of telling a truth, running a campaign or let alone leading our Republic.
They shall not pass!😎
Mr Turley, a column idea for you. If Jack Smith is found to not be a special council can Donald Trump sue him for violations of his due process rights? I know prosecutors have absolute immunity but if he is found to not be a special prosecutor then he has no immunity. I would think Trump could sue him for any violation of his rights. Am I right? Is there a column in that?
And to recover monetary damages resulting from Smith’s illegal prosecution and levied against Smith personally.
Yes, a jury nullification.
OT Samaritans Purse is helping out in ravaged Helene areas. Perhaps donate.
FEMA is too busy.
Perhaps FEMA has to conduct sensitivity training first…
Is FEMA taxed for and funded as “debt, defense, or general Welfare?”
It is distinctly neither debt nor defense, and cannot possibly be general (all or the whole) Welfare as it appears to involve only individual states or, at most, regions, not all or the whole.
Where is FEMA in the Constitution?
Delete it and refund taxes. Delete Homeland security, education and so much more. Refund taxpayers. While we’re at it, fewer reps , term limits, all social programs that aren’t self funded, and so much more. Laws regarding speaking fees and books regarding term in office only after 10 years have elapsed. Sure…cut salaries in half for elected officials, as well.
Is jury nullification legal?
Yes
So the jury must ignore the evidence.
So the jury should ignore police state fascism and the evidence that Jack Smith is once again a police state fascist and “a threat to our separation of powers” (SCOTUS) as he was in his 2012 successful lawfare against the presidential candidacy of Governor Bob McDonnell threatening Obama/Biden reelection.
Got it.
The Poll most favorable for Trump:
Gigi is coming unglued!
Does it say Townhall there?
Asking for a friend.
OCTOBER SURPRISE???
“Your role has reshaped the perception of masculinity.”
– Jen Psaki to Doug Emhoff
_______________________________
Just a few days ago Jen Psaki said Doug Emhoff is reshaping the perception of masculinity.
Turns out he assaulted his ex, cheated on his wife, got his nanny pregnant, and said the nanny claimed he caused her to miscarry.
Is this the masculinity @jrpsaki was referring to?
_____________________________________________________
Doug Emhoff timeline:
2009: Impregnated his chiId’s nanny (aborted/abandoned?)
2012: Physically assauIts his girlfriend
2023: Lectures us on toxic masculinity
2024: Hailed for redefining masculinity
___________________________________________
Vice President Kamala Harris’s husband assaulted his ex-girlfriend, three friends have told Dailymail.com. The Second Gentleman Doug Emhoff, 59, allegedly struck the woman in the face so hard she spun around, while waiting in a valet line late at night after a May 2012 Cannes Film Festival event in France. One of her friends told DailyMail.com that the woman called him immediately after the incident, sobbing in her cab, and described the alleged assault. DailyMail.com is not naming the woman, who is a successful New York attorney, but will refer to her by the pseudonym ‘Jane’. A second friend said Jane, who had been dating Emhoff for three months, also told her about the alleged violence at the time. A third friend told DailyMail.com that Jane first told her in 2014 that she had dated Emhoff, and recounted the full story of his alleged abuse in 2018, when then senator Harris was in the news after grilling Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh in a Senate hearing over sexual assault allegations. The friends, who all asked not to be named for fear of retaliation by Emhoff, shared with DailyMail.com pictures of him and Jane together from 2012, and other documents and communications corroborating elements of the story. Jane declined to comment.
– Townhall
Tom: where’s your proof? Or, is this more of the MAGA media slop you choose to believe?
What part do you think is false ?
Them Democrats sure know how to portray masculinity.
If they can’t tell the difference between a man and a woman, how do they know what masculinity is?
* the queen’s consort.
* It’s much worse. One lead is Israel attacking before Harris takes office.
It’s so bad for the moral people It’s necessary to be in the world and not of it. A person’s conduct is their own. The public cannot be changed.
When given good return good. When given ill return good. It is a wholly immoral condition. Personal behavior is yours and yours alone. Abortion is theirs and not yours. Marriages are theirs and not yours. Theft is theirs and not yours. Murder is theirs and not yours. It’s all irreconcilable unless a person separates their own behaviors from theirs.
Weissman will be found out. Cassidy lied about choking the driver etc and was not coached to do so unless she felt pressure from the stacked committee and was in fear for her life.
FLYOVER: Incoherent
* Talking about current conditions. It makes sense to moral people.
Take care
* Americans aren’t familiar with 3rd worlds and are still in stun mode. It’s a 3rd world in North America . Lots of crime. Theft is part of what it means to be moral. Murder is big. Wake up, George Floyd is a Saint. He made people feel good.
Be in the world and not of it.
ASSterisk