Trump Advisor Eastman Asked For Pardon After Riot

Topline

Right-wing legal scholar John Eastman, who backed former President Donald Trump’s claims of fraud in the 2020 election, was among a group that asked for pardons after rioters stormed the Capitol on January 6, 2021, according to an email obtained by the House committee investigating the riot, but the requested pardons were never issued.

Key Facts

Eastman told Rudy Giuliani, Trump’s former personal attorney, that he wanted to be put “on the pardon list, if that is still in the works.”

Eastman’s role in pushing fraud claims was a focal point of Thursday’s January 6 committee hearing, but Greg Jacob, a lawyer in the Trump administration who worked for former Vice President Mike Pence, said in a deposition that Eastman knew Trump’s effort to get Pence to block the certification of Joe Biden’s victory in the 2020 presidential election was problematic.

Eastman advised Trump before the January 6 riot that Pence’s intervention would have violated the Electoral Count Act, Jacob said.

The committee also briefly played video of a deposition Eastman gave to the committee, in which he continually pleaded the Fifth.

See more on Eastman’s role in trying to overturn the 2020 election results here.

Key Background

Thursday’s hearing focused on how Trump called on Pence to somehow block Congress from certifying the 2020 election results, and was the third of six hearings planned this month by the committee. Multiple former White House staffers testified that they pushed back on Eastman’s effort to overturn the election results. Eric Herschmann, a Trump White House lawyer, said he repeatedly blasted Eastman, at one point warning he would cause “riots in the streets” by rejecting the will of voters.

Tangent

The committee has alleged “multiple” members of Congress sought pardons after January 6, including Rep. Scott Perry (R-Pa.). Perry has denied the accusation.