John Eastman, the veteran conservative lawyer who devised a radical, last-ditch strategy to help Donald Trump overturn the 2020 election, can no longer practice law in California.
California Supreme Court on Wednesday rejected Eastman’s final bid to save his law license involved lower court judges upholding Eastman’s disbarment over his role in the 2020 scheme. The court ordered that his name be “stripped off from the roll of advocates.”
decision finished three year disciplinary process Punctuated by a lengthy and high-stakes trial that reviewed Eastman’s emergence as a key architect of Trump’s effort to pressure then-Vice President Mike Pence to overturn Joe Biden’s Electoral College victory.
A judge at the State Bar Court of California ordered Eastman to be disbarred in 2024, but the decision has since been mired in appeals. However, in the interim, Eastman was suspended from practicing law.
Although the decision only applies to Eastman’s license to practice law in California, disbarment decisions are generally adopted by authorities in other jurisdictions in “reciprocating” decisions. Despite his license, Eastman is also a member of the bar in Washington, D.C. has been suspended There too.
Eastman remains one of the highest-profile individuals in Trump’s orbit to face permanent consequences for his involvement in Trump’s 2020 effort. The former clerk to Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas was identified by former special counsel Jack Smith as a co-conspirator in Trump’s alleged criminal conspiracy to stay in power. Along with a long list of Trump associates, he was also criminally charged in Arizona and Georgia, in cases that were derailed by procedural and prosecutorial flaws. Eastman’s allies in this effort, attorneys Rudy Giuliani and Kenneth Chesebro, were similarly dismissed.
Matthew Seligman, a constitutional law attorney who was the key witness against Eastman in his disarmament suit, called the state Supreme Court’s decision “a fitting end to a tale of injustice.”
Seligman said, “Dr. Eastman tried to use his legal training to subvert the will of the American people in one of the most serious attacks on the American election system in our nation’s history.” “As the Court concluded, following that misconduct, Dr. Eastman cannot be trusted with the responsibility of serving clients as a lawyer.”
Jeffrey Clark, a former Trump administration official, is also fighting a potential ban in Washington, DC. clarke weighed quickly On Eastman’s California ban, called it a “joke” and encouraged Eastman to ask the U.S. Supreme Court for relief.
Eastman’s attorney Randall Miller said during his disciplinary proceeding, “The California Supreme Court has allowed a State Bar Court recommendation to stand, which we argue departs from long-standing United States Supreme Court precedent protecting First Amendment rights, particularly in the context of attorney discipline.” “We disagree with that result and believe it raises significant constitutional concerns regarding the limits on state regulation of attorney speech.”
Miller said Eastman will ask the U.S. Supreme Court to “reject this threat to the rule of law and our country’s adversarial system of justice.”
Eastman was brought into Trump’s fold in the fall of 2020, as Trump waged an increasingly tense legal and political effort to retain power despite losing the election. Eastman helped lead litigation aimed at overturning the results in Georgia and other states, and pressured state lawmakers to assert the right to overturn the results.
After the court effort failed, Eastman helped Trump formulate a plan to use the January 6, 2021 session of Congress – when lawmakers are required to meet and certify Biden’s victory in the 2020 election – to convince Pence to use his power to halt the proceedings. Trump seized on the principle and spent several weeks pressuring Pence to act, and Eastman spent the days before January 6 meeting with Pence’s aides to convince him to adopt the strategy.
Pence ultimately refused, effectively sealing Biden’s victory.
Outrage among Trump’s supporters – who had gathered in Washington on the president’s orders – led to a riot at the Capitol on January 6. During the violence, Eastman continued to pressure Pence to consider shutting down the proceedings, leading to a dramatic and infamous exchange with Pence’s top aides as they escaped the mob inside the Capitol.
Greg Jacobs, Pence’s chief lawyer at the time, said in an email to Eastman, “Thanks to your nonsense, we are now under siege.”
