Topline
Former Trump legal adviser John C. Eastman, who outlined a legal strategy for overturning the 2020 presidential election, has been under investigation since September by the State Bar of California for possible legal and ethical violations, the bar announced Tuesday.
Attorney John Eastman speaks about his plans to sue the University of Colorado Boulder at a news … [+]
Key Facts
The bar said Eastman may have breached California law and attorney ethics rules in connection to the election, which Eastman suggested could have been overturned with the intervention of then Vice President Mike Pence.
The investigation began after various people and entities alerted the bar to news reports, court filings and other documents relating to Eastman’s conduct, bar Chief Trial Counsel George Cardona said in a statement Tuesday.
The investigation will help decide whether to file a notice of disciplinary charges, possibly leading to a hearing before California’s State Bar Court.
If the State Bar Court convicts an attorney of professional misconduct, it can recommend to the California Supreme Court that that attorney be suspended or disbarred.
Details of the investigations will not be released so as to comply with statutes and to give the investigation the maximum chance of succeeding, the bar announced.
Eastman was not immediately available for comment.
Activist hold placards on the steps of Manhattan’s Main Library, marking the one-year anniversary of … [+]
Key Background
While a member of then President Donald Trump’s legal team, Eastman authored a confidential memo detailing a plan for reversing the 2020 presidential election. Under this plan, Pence would have declared seven states’ elections “disputed,” allowing him to disregard those states’ electoral votes and declare Trump the winning candidate. At the January 6, 2021 “Stop the Steal” rally directly preceding the Capitol riot, Eastman repeated false claims that election officials broke the law “in order to put Vice President Biden over the finish line,” and urged protesters to “save our republic” from the supposed Democratic conspiracy. In the following weeks, Eastman resigned from a tenured professorship at California’s Chapman University and was banned from speaking at the University of Colorado, Boulder, where he was a visiting scholar. In response, Eastman lodged a legal claim demanding $1.85 million in compensation for “reputational harm,” alleging that he was defamed and discriminated against by the university because of his political affiliation. In October, a group of 25 current and former lawyers, judges and other scholars and officials submitted a formal complaint to the State Bar of California, alleging that Eastman violated the bar’s rules of conduct by participating in an attempt to overturn the election, and urging an “immediate” investigation. Though an investigation was ongoing at that point, it had not yet been made public.
Tangent
In a 2020 Newsweek opinion piece, Eastman argued that Kamala Harris might be ineligible for the vice presidency because she was born to immigrant parents who, Eastman claimed, were possibly not lawful permanent residents of the U.S. when Harris was born. This argument relies on an eccentric reading of the 14th Amendment rejected by most experts. Trump, who neither explicitly endorsed nor rejected Eastman’s argument, nonetheless praised Eastman for his “brilliant” work.
Further Reading
“‘Big Lie’ Proponent John Eastman Uses Christian Crowdfunding Site To Raise Money For His Legal Bills” (Forbes)
“Trump’s New Lawyer Has Promoted Birther Conspiracy Theories About Kamala Harris’ Citizenship” (Forbes)
Source: https://www.forbes.com/sites/zacharysmith/2022/03/01/lawyer-who-drafted-plan-to-overturn-2020-election-is-under-investigation-by-california-bar/