A top MSNBC host could be facing serious legal trouble after a federal court in Washington, D.C. ruled that a defamation lawsuit against legal analyst Andrew Weissmann could proceed. Weissmann faced accusations from Stefan Passantino, a former Trump White House lawyer, who claimed the MSNBC personality of defaming him on social media regarding the January 6 investigation.
The suit pointed out that, as a lawyer, Passantino relies on his reputation and good standing to make a living. Weissman was then accused Weissmann of publicly denigrating the lawyer, claiming he encouraged a client to lie in a testimony given to Congress. The lawsuit firmly denied these claims, maintaining they are baseless.
“Defendant Andrew Weissmann—a partisan former prosecutor and top deputy to Special Counsel Robert Mueller turned MSNBC “legal analyst”—has publicly impugned that reputation, claiming that Mr. Passantino coached his client, Cassidy Hutchinson, to lie in congressional testimony,” the lawsuit read. “This is an insidious lie. Mr. Passantino never coached Ms. Hutchinson to lie, nor did he attempt to shape her testimony in any way.”
“Ms. Hutchinson even testified, under penalty of law: “I want to make this clear to you: Stefan [Passantino] never told me to lie. . . . He told me not to lie.” Defendant was aware of this testimony, but still chose to smear. Mr. Passantino in advancement of his newfound career as a partisan political pundit,” the lawsuit continued.
As background, Hutchinson ditched Passantino and sought new legal representation, explaining in a memoir that she had been allegedly coached by Passantino to lie before Congress. However, Passantino has denied these claims, maintaining he follows ethical guidelines. Furthermore, he denounced the accusations from Weissmann stating they are false.
Passantino took legal action against Weissmann last year after a post he made on social media touting Hutchinson’s claims that he had coached her to lie as fact. Weissmann posted, “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.””
The American Tribune recently reported on other concerns for MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” hosts Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski, expressing concerns that they “could be fired.” As MSNBC is set to change ownership amid its struggling ratings, the personalities seemed to suggest that their job security could be jeopardized by the new ownership of NBCUniversal.
Referencing the plans to sell NBCUniversal, which encompasses MSNBC, Scarborough stated, “I mean, I could be completely wrong: we could all be fired a year from now. When this happens, you never know what’s going to happen.” Joking that they could be out of a job sooner than the timeline Joe offered, Mika added, “Or tomorrow.” Watch their commentary below:
Furthermore, an MSNBC staffer spoke to Fox News Digital about the state of affairs within MSNBC, stating, “What is MSNBC going to be editorially? I would say some people are probably relieved that probably Comcast and NBC will have less to do with that, because if you look at the kerfuffles over the last year with Mika and Joe and with Ronna McDaniel, it was all… out of sync with our viewers, are our hosts and reporters out of sync with our bosses.”
