A defamation lawsuit filed by a former Trump administration official against attorney Andrew Weissmann has run into major obstacles, after a federal judge concluded that the court record supports the statement at the heart of the dispute.

Weissmann, who served as FBI general counsel under former President Barack Obama and advised the late special counsel Robert Mueller during the 2017 Russian investigation, is the target of the suit brought by attorney Stefan C. Passantino. Passantino served in the Office of White House Counsel during the first Trump administration and later represented conservative Cassidy Hutchinson during the investigation of the January 6, 2021 attack on the U.S. Capitol Building.

According to Law & Crime reporter Matt Naham, the lawsuit alleges that Weissmann defamed Passantino when he said — without naming him — that he "coached" Hutchinson, a former aide to ex-White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows, to "lie" to Congress during her testimony. In U.S. defamation law, truth is an absolute defense, so the suit's core premise — that Weissmann's characterization was false — depends on what the underlying record shows.

But on Monday, September 21, the suit suffered a major rebuke when U.S. District Judge Loren AliKhan, an appointee of former President Joe Biden, strongly disagreed with Passantino's claims.

In a ruling, AliKhan wrote, "To resolve the relevant question, the court looks to the full transcript of the September 14 deposition. The court concludes that Mr. Passantino's claims about the message of the transcript are not only legally conclusory, but also incorrect. The transcript, far from contradicting Mr. Weissmann's statement, supports it."

The judge continued: "Ms. Hutchinson's statements indicate that Mr. Passantino repeatedly prompted Ms. Hutchinson to lie. For example, Mr. Passantino's advice included telling Ms. Hutchinson that 'Your go-to, Cass,' is 'I don't recall,' even when she asked about answering 'certain questions that [she] would recall.' When Ms. Hutchinson told Mr. Passantino, 'I'm f[—–]. I just lied.' Mr. Passantino purportedly 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 saying 'I don't recall' is an entirely acceptable response to this … In other words, the transcript reflects that even as Mr. Passantino nominally instructed Ms. Hutchinson not to lie, he repeatedly urged her to say 'I don't recall' based on the unverifiability of that response — not based on its truth."

AliKhan added, "He encouraged her to say 'I don't recall' whenever the Committee would not know the difference, even when Ms. Hutchinson indicated to him that she did in fact recall relevant information."

Naham notes that Passantino "represented Hutchinson for three January 6 Committee depositions, advising her that 'I don't recall' was an 'entirely acceptable' response if she didn't '100 percent recall something' down to the last detail."

"Before Hutchinson's fourth and fifth depositions, however, she fired Passantino," according to Naham. "And though she herself said that Passantino 'never told me to lie,' the judge saw something else in the transcript."

Passantino's lawsuit "alleged that Weissmann's post amounted to an 'insidious lie' and 'smear' that damaged his reputation and harmed him financially," Naham points out. AliKhan disagreed, however, noting the "objective reasonableness" of Weissmann's statement.

Where Passantino goes from here remains to be seen, according to Naham, who reports that "Law & Crime sought comment from one of Passantino's lawyers and asked whether an appeal will follow."