Quote:
Originally Posted by Castle2.0
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"Bob said Billy did this."
-Person Who Was Not Present
Is there a hearsay exemption for this? ^
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I'm assuming you're referring to her statement about the incident in the Secret Service vehicle where Trump tried to grab the steering wheel and things he apparently said while in that car? Or are you asking about other statements? I'll try to explain it as clearly as possible for the former.
Obviously, as an initial matter hearsay rules do not apply in Congressional hearings. Just getting that basic point out of the way. So I'm assuming we're talking about in the case of an actual criminal trial. The hearsay rules have multiple different exemptions and also exceptions that allow the testimony to be admitted as evidence.
Now, another thing to remember here is that hearsay is an out of court statement offered to
prove the matter asserted. That's an important distinction because the testimony on the Secret Service incident isn't hearsay if it's not used at trial to actually prove Trump tried to grab the steering wheel. For example, a prosecutor could argue that they are just using that testimony as part of showing Trump's state of mind (although even then there's also a hearsay exemption for that) and if a judge agrees with them then it's not hearsay at all.
If a judge deems it to be hearsay then one of the ways for a prosecutor to argue for it IMO would be present sense impression. Statements someone made about an event either during or very soon after it happened. This is one of the ways the Secret Service story could potentially come in. A prosecutor could argue that she is testifying to comments made right after an event and she is saying right after this happened person A told me this and person B who was also in the car didn't contradict him.
Excited utterance is a possibility, but a bit less firm than the present sense impression. As noted above, defendant's state of mind is also a relevant exemption if we're talking about a case where Trump is the defendant.
Another way you could get that story in if you're in a criminal trial against Trump himself is: 1. First try to get Ornato guy to testify to Trump's actions/statements...in that case it's a statement made by a party who is an opponent in the case (i.e. Trump) and therefore the hearsay rule wouldn't prohibit the testimony; 2. If Ornato refuses to testify, then Hutchinson's testimony fall under an exception to the rule that allows it to be admitted as evidence (you don't want a witness to refuse to testify in order to prevent evidence from being presented). Just another thing to note, if Ornato was a witness in a criminal trial, Hutchinson's testimony about things he said out of court are generally considered exempt from the hearsay rule (so just another thing to consider).
Other things she said are a lot more clearly within exceptions/exemptions to the hearsay rule, but there are ways for the testimony about what was said in the Secret Service vehicle to come in. Really not hard at all to get that into evidence in a criminal trial.