Lawyer John Eastman had claimed the situation had turned him into a "pseudo . "[101] Eastman's assertion of privilege for 101 emails was rejected by Judge David O. Carter in March 2022, who ordered the emails to be produced to the committee. Mr. McCartney had hired the Eastmans, father and son, to be his representatives and tried to persuade his three bandmates to put them in charge of the groups affairs. [75][76][77], On January 6, Eastman spoke alongside Giuliani at the "Save America" rally that preceded the 2021 storming of the United States Capitol and asserted without evidence that balloting machines contained "secret folders" that altered voting results. Emailus. Former lawyer of former President Donald Trump, John Eastman, appears on screen during the fourth hearing by the House Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the US Capitol. Eastman also grabbed Trumps attention ahead of the 2020 election, when he suggested in a Newsweek op-ed that Bidens then-running mate Kamala Harris might not be eligible for the vice presidency because its unclear what immigration status her parents held when she was born in California. John Eastman, an ally of Donald Trump who authored a memo outlining how to . There is nothing more sacrosanct to our American democracy than free and fair elections and the peaceful transfer of power, said State Bar of California chief trial counsel George Cardona, according to a report by Law & Crime. Before he urged Vice President Mike Pence to unilaterally hand the 2020 election to Donald Trump, right-wing lawyer John Eastman, who represented Trump after the election, floated a somewhat. [38], Eastman is chairman of the Federalist Society's practice group on federalism and separation of powers. Exclusive: Trump's Team Setting Up Eastman to Take Blame for Jan. 6. [129][78], On December 19, 2022, Eastman and Trump were publicly named during a televised January 6 Committee hearing as being among those who the committee wanted charged for the January 6, 2021 U.S. Capitol attack. They developed a specialty in working with pop musicians whose business had suffered under previous representatives. He is a founding director of the Center for Constitutional Jurisprudence, a public interest law firm affiliated with the Claremont Institute. Eastman asserted this had been reported by The Washington Post days earlier, though the article he appeared to reference did not support his assertion and did not mention antifa. [2] [3] He is a former professor and dean at the Chapman University School of Law. John Eastman, a lawyer and fellow at a right-wing think tank, is now desperately downplaying the memos he wrote before January 6 laying out how then-Vice President Mike Pence could overturn the election and subvert the will of the American people. Separately, in one December 2020 email, Eastman alluded to a heated fight over whether the Supreme Court should take up an election challenge, the New York Times reported Wednesday. [121] On January 26, 2023, Eastman was charged with multiple disciplinary counts by the State Bar of California. Kowalke and NJP lawyer Goriune Dudukgian argued Eastman's lifetime membership in the far-right group made him disloyal and therefore ineligible to hold office in Alaska under the state . [130][131], On January 7, 2021, Eastman edited this Wikipedia article to portray his post-election role in a more favorable light. And complaints have been filed against Jeffrey Clark and John Eastman, alleging violations of lawyers' Rules of Professional Conduct. Federal authorities had not identified the man as an antifa activist. ", "John Eastman Named National Organization For Marriage Chairman", "Claremont Institute - Board of Directors", "What the Hell Happened to the Claremont Institute? The other Beatles responded to the lawsuit in frustration. According to Eastman, he caught COVID-19 at that time. [68][69][70], On January 2, 2021, Eastman joined Trump, the president's personal attorney Rudy Giuliani and others in a conference call with 300 Republican legislators from Arizona, Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin to brief them on allegations of voter fraud, with the objective of the legislators attempting to decertify their states' election results. Not only did he help me massively in my business dealings as my lawyer but as a friend he was hard to beat.. "[67], On December 24, 2020, in an email exchange with New York appellate attorney Kenneth Chesebro and Trump campaign officials, Eastman wrote he was aware of a "heated fight" within the Supreme Court about whether to hear a case. [57] He also asserted in October that a scenario in which Pence would reject ballots was "foolish" and "crazy," further claiming he had told Pence during their Oval Office meeting that his proposal was an "open question" and "the weaker argument". [106], On June 7, Carter ruled that Eastman must disclose an additional 159 sensitive documents to the committee. Anyone can read what you share. Carter found that one Eastman email exchange showed Trump had sworn under oath that the number of alleged voting fraud cases his attorneys cited in a Georgia federal suit was accurate, though he knew it was not. A federal judge in California previously found that Trump and Eastman more likely than not violated two felony statutes in their attempts to overturn the election: obstruction of an official proceeding and conspiracy to defraud the United States. Newsweek defended the column, while acknowledging that they were "horrified that this op-ed gave rise to a wave of vile Birtherism directed at Senator Harris". Lawyer John Eastman has been hit with disciplinary charges and should be disbarred for his alleged involvement in former President Donald Trumps bid to throw out the 2020 election results, according to the California State Bar. Trump lawyer John Eastman, left, is seen in a video during a hearing of the House select committee investigating the Jan. 6 insurrection on Thursday. "[118][119] In March 2022, the State Bar of California announced that since September 2021, it had been investigating claims of possible violations of law and ethics rules by Eastman. [23], In 1989, prior to attending law school, Eastman served as the director of Congressional and public affairs at the United States Commission on Civil Rights. Even after the insurrection, Eastman was still trying to overturn the election Even after Jan. 6, Eastman was still talking about the 2020 election not yet being certain. It Wasn't Pretty", "Fact check: No, Pence can't overturn the election results", "AP FACT CHECK: Trump's false claims, fuel on a day of chaos", "FACT CHECK: What Pence And Congress Can And Can't Do About The Election", "Chapman University will not fire law professor who spoke at pro-Trump Capitol rally", "Chapman University President Condemns Controversial Law Professor Who Aided Trump", "CU Boulder won't fire conservative scholar who spread "repugnant" conspiracy theories at D.C. rally", "Faculty call for firing of Chapman University professor who spoke at pro-Trump rally", "What if there had been no adults in the room on January 6? John Eastman '64, an entertainment lawyer who represented Paul McCartney, the family of Willem de Kooning, and the estate of Francis Bacon, among other clients, passed away on August 10 at the age of 83. John Eastman, a Republican lawyer who allegedly played a leading role in the overall coup scheme, reportedly pleaded the Fifth with both the Jan. 6 committee and a Georgia special grand jury . "[107], On June 15, 2022, the Washington Post reported that the January 6 committee had recently acquired emails between Eastman and Ginni Thomas, wife of Supreme Court justice Clarence Thomas,[108] and the New York Times reported that the committee had obtained the EastmanChesebro email exchange from December 24, 2020. [115], Judge Carter ruled in October 2022 that Eastman must turn over an additional 33 documents to the January 6 committee, including eight he determined were ineligible for attorney-client privilege because they related to possible criminal activity. Or to keep it anonymous, click here. For the member of the Wisconsin State Senate, see, Legal strategies to reject electoral votes, Actions during the January 6th attack on the Capitol, United States House Select Committee on the January 6 Attack, United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit, 2010 California Attorney General election, challenge the results of the 2020 United States presidential election, Attempts to overturn the 2020 United States presidential election, 2021 storming of the United States Capitol, crime-fraud exception to the attorney-client privilege, List of law clerks of the Supreme Court of the United States (Seat 10), "Who is 'Coup Memo' author John Eastman and what role did he play in pushing Trump's plan to derail democracy? If Dr. Eastman and President Trumps plan had worked, it would have permanently ended the peaceful transition of power, undermining American democracy and the Constitution., Eastmans interest in the election didnt seem to evaporate after the January 6 riot. There is nothing to it. Scholars say there's no VP eligibility debate", "The White Supremacist "Scholars" Pushing the Kamala Harris Birther Lie", "Newsweek apologizes for op-ed questioning Harris eligibility", "Ahead of Jan. 6, Willard hotel in downtown D.C. was a Trump team 'command center' for effort to deny Biden the presidency", "During Jan. 6 riot, Trump attorney told Pence team the vice president's inaction caused attack on Capitol", "Trump lawyer John Eastman said 'courage and the spine' would help Pence send election to the House in comments before January 6", "Trump Lawyer Blamed Pence for Violence as Rioters Stormed Capitol - John Eastman, the author of a memo that some in both parties liken to a blueprint for a coup, sent a hostile email to the vice president's chief counsel as the mob attacked", "Washington Post: Trump lawyer John Eastman blamed Pence for January 6 violence by refusing to block 2020 election certification", "The most shocking new revelation about John Eastman - He and Trump were not just pressing forward despite the mob; they apparently were trying to leverage it", "Memo shows Trump lawyer's six-step plan for Pence to overturn the election", "UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT CENTRAL DISTRICT OF CALIFORNIA SOUTHERN DIVISION JOHN C. EASTMAN Plaintiff, vs. BENNIE G. THOMPSON, et al., Defendants. Aside from Mr. McCartney, they were best known for working with Mr. Joel in the late 1980s and early 90s, when he sued his former manager and lawyer. The 61-year-old lawyer's rsum features some of the top credentials of the conservative legal movement: clerkships with former Judge Michael Luttig and Justice Clarence Thomas, the chairmanship. Advertisement. In the email, Eastman described a plan by which the Pennsylvania legislature could act to reverse Biden's victory in the state and declare Trump the winner. Meanwhile, John Eastman, the law professor who developed the plan to challenge Joe Biden's electors on January 6, 2021, is fighting back against the Left's move to disbar him. [125][127], The University of Colorado cancelled Eastman's Spring 2021 courses due to low enrollment. "There is nothing more sacrosanct to our American democracy than free and fair elections and the peaceful transfer of power." After CNBC asked Thomas about the group, its public pages were either made private or deleted. stands onstage as Rudy Giuliani speaks in Washington on January 6, 2021. The well-known lawyer had known the former Beatles vocalist for over 50 years. A day after the January 6, 2021 attack on the Capitol, the conservative lawyer John Eastman went looking for someone in then-President Donald Trump's orbit to discuss an issue involving his effort . An analysis of Eastman's profile in the nearly 40 years before he became President Trump's lawyer, along with interviews with more than a dozen friends and associates, reveal how Eastman's. John Eastman, the Trump-allied lawyer who wrote memos urging then-Vice President Mike Pence to overturn the 2020 election results, said in a court filing Monday that federal agents seized his. And one day later, Eastman called White House attorney Eric Herschmann to discuss legal efforts in Georgia, Herschmann told the January 6 committee in testimony released this week. [72] On January 5, 2021, Eastman met with Pence in the Oval Office to argue, incorrectly, that the vice president has the constitutional authority to alter or otherwise change electoral votes. Early in their work with Mr. McCartney, the Eastmans helped him set up what would become MPL Communications, his entertainment company. Eastman and President Trump launched a campaign to overturn a democratic election, an action unprecedented in American history, Carter wrote in a March ruling. In addition to his son Lee, he is survived by his wife, Josephine; another son, Jay; a daughter, Louise; two sisters, Louise Weed and Laura Malcolm; and 11 grandchildren.