As explained by various news reports, ex-Trump lawyer John Eastman, who was involved in deliberations within Trump’s circles around ambitions of targeting the Congressional certification of the 2020 presidential election results, has been found preliminarily “culpable” in disciplinary trial proceedings that could lead to his disbarment.
“Now, state bar officials are preparing to present “aggravation” evidence aimed at justifying their call to strip Eastman, a veteran conservative attorney who once clerked for Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, of his law license,” POLITICO reported. Eastman has also been criminally charged in Georgia as part of an alleged conspiracy targeting that state’s presidential election results from 2020, but the dispute (in California) is separate. In the disciplinary case, Eastman himself has taken the stand to answer questions — and in general, he’s stuck by positions he’s taken on the 2020 presidential election, though the full record of factual evidence has clearly established, as seen at multiple levels of governmental investigation, there was no systematic integrity problem.
As also recapped by POLITICO, Eastman’s responses under pressure have included a generally dismissive attitude towards potentially serious implications of his speech on January 6, 2021, when he joined the outdoor rally in Washington, D.C., that provided a foundation for the attack on the Capitol that day. “My point in speaking on Jan. 6 was to raise concerns about illegality in the conduct of the election that may well have led to the certification of somebody who did not win the election,” Eastman reportedly said.
And Eastman also argued that he did not actually present then-President Trump with already reported documents he prepared outlining purported options for action by then-VP Mike Pence as he oversaw Congressional certification of the election results on January 6.
Recently in the sweeping criminal case in Georgia in which Eastman is also charged, co-defendant Jenna Ellis took a plea deal whose documents included an admission to the falsity of arguments made during a hearing with Georgia legislators after the 2020 election in which Eastman also participated. Eastman, pressed about the developments with Ellis at these proceedings that could culminate in his disbarment, was again dismissive. Read more at this link.
