Attorney Gives Rep. Jim Jordan A Scathing Personal Lesson In Hearsay
An attorney on Twitter clapped back at an account closely linked to Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) that suggested Tuesday’s shattering testimony before the House select committee investigating the U.S. Capitol riot was “all hearsay.”
The House Judiciary Committee Republicans’ account ― which names Jordan as its ranking member in its Twitter bio ― labeled the astonishing testimony from former White House aide Cassidy Hutchinson as hearsay.
“It’s literally all hearsay evidence. What a joke,” the post on the GOP account said of Hutchinson’s testimony about Donald Trump’s last days as president.
It’s literally all hearsay evidence. What a joke.
— House Judiciary GOP (@JudiciaryGOP) June 28, 2022
Hutchinson, an aide to former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows, testified Tuesday that Trump said he “didn’t f-ing care” that his supporters at a “Stop the Steal” rally on Jan. 6, 2021, had weapons. At the end of the rally on the Ellipse, Trump encouraged his supporters to go the U.S. Capitol to confront Congress.
She also said Trump lunged at a Secret Service agent in the presidential limo when the agent refused to take Trump to the Capitol and instead insisted they return to the White House.
Twitter account Popehat, an account for attorney Ken White’s law-centric blog of the same name, disagreed with the GOP account.
“Naw, man, only some of it is hearsay. Need help understanding the difference?” the account tweeted.
Naw, man, only some of it is hearsay. Need help understanding the difference? I'm here to help you. I'm hoping to help you.
/1https://t.co/k5XOzVAxyO— BrandenburgTestHat (@Popehat) June 28, 2022
The account proceeded to offer examples of what could and couldn’t be considered hearsay.
One of the examples throws shade at Jordan for his time as an assistant wrestling coach at Ohio State University, when he allegedly knew of sexual abuse claims by students.
Former university wrestlers came forward in 2018 with allegations that a team doctor, Richard Strauss, sexually abused athletes and that Jordan talked about the abuse with them in the locker room, NBC News reported.
A former wrestling team captain, during an Ohio Statehouse hearing in 2020, also said Jordan called him to ask if he’d make statements to contradict claims that Jordan and other team officials knew about the abuse, Cleveland.com reported.
Jordan has repeatedly denied knowing about the sexual abuse claims.
The account concluded its Twitter thread with a tweet that said “first-hand witness testimony about what Trump said” is not hearsay.
Other legal analysts on Twitter also weighed in on the “hearsay” question.
Attorney Renato Mariotti wrote that the testimony would not be hearsay if the Department of Justice offered it at court in a case against the former president.
You can read most of Popehat’s Twitter thread directed at the House Judiciary Committee GOP account below.
/2 So if a player comes up to you and says "hey coach I went to the team doctor for a bloody nose and he grabbed my genitals instead," that's not hearsay because he's not repeating an out of court statement, it's something that person perceived.
— BrandenburgTestHat (@Popehat) June 28, 2022
/3 But if people came to you and said "hey coach a bunch of people are complaining that the team doctor is perving on them in the showers and doing gratuitous genital exams," that would be hearsay, because they're talking about other people's statements.
— BrandenburgTestHat (@Popehat) June 28, 2022
/4 Now, say you were being sued for something -- say, some sort of grotesque dereliction of duty for failing to report or stop the serial sexual abuse of people under your care -- and a witness said "I told coach about it and he said 'I have nothing to do with this.'"
— BrandenburgTestHat (@Popehat) June 28, 2022
/5 That's not hearsay either, because in that case you're a party opponent and a statement of a party opponent is not hearsay. Just like first-hand witness testimony about what Trump said would be a statement of a party opponent in, say, a prosecution of Trump
— BrandenburgTestHat (@Popehat) June 28, 2022
This article originally appeared on HuffPost and has been updated.