John Eastman, architect of Trump’s 2020 election plot, should be disbarred, judge rules

A California judge on Wednesday recommended the disbarment of John Eastman, calling to revoke the law license of one of former President Donald Trump’s top allies in his failed last-ditch gambit to subvert the 2020 election.

Judge Yvette Roland, who presided over months of testimony and argument about the basis of Eastman’s fringe legal theories, ruled that the veteran conservative attorney violated ethics rules — and even potentially criminal law — when he advanced Trump’s efforts to overturn the election results based on weak or discredited claims of fraud.

Eastman plans to appeal Roland’s decision to a panel of judges, an interim step before the matter reaches the state Supreme Court. But while his appeal is pending, the ruling forces his law license into “inactive” status, meaning he can no longer practice law in California.

“Given the serious and extensive nature of Eastman’s unethical actions, the most severe available professional sanction is warranted to protect the public and preserve the public confidence in the legal system,” Roland ruled.

Roland’s 128-page opinion was a lacerating rebuke of Eastman’s conduct and his subsequent lack of remorse. She concluded that he made knowingly flimsy claims of fraud and irregularities in legal filings on Trump’s behalf, including his brief for Trump in a Supreme Court fight.

The judge walked through Eastman’s extensive involvement in Trump’s efforts to overturn the 2020 election results, from his early lawsuits that failed to gain traction to his bid to solicit GOP state legislatures to send “alternate” electors to Congress, a last-gasp bid to keep Trump in power. At every turn, Roland said, Eastman ignored evidence that was unfavorable to his case and accepted at face value claims of fraud or misconduct aimed at sowing doubt about the election results.

“He turned a blind eye to any information that would not support his position of election fraud,” Roland wrote.

In all, Roland found Eastman culpable for 10 of 11 charges that state bar investigators brought against him, including misleading courts, lack of candor and, most notably, plotting with Trump to derail the transfer of power.

“Eastman conspired with President Trump to obstruct a lawful function of the government of the United States; specifically, by conspiring to disrupt the electoral count on January 6, 2021,” Roland ruled.

Eastman’s attorney, Randall Miller, said Eastman still believes his work on Trump’s behalf in 2020 “was based on reliable legal precedent, prior presidential elections, research of constitutional text, and extensive scholarly material.” He also noted that Eastman is facing criminal charges in Georgia and has now lost the ability to finance his defense with his work as an attorney.

“Any reasonable person can see the inherent unfairness of prohibiting a presumed-innocent defendant from being able to earn the funds needed to pay for the enormous expenses required to defend himself, in the profession in which he has long been licensed,” Miller said. “That is not justice and serves no legitimate purpose to protect the public.”

Roland found, in contrast, that the state bar investigators had failed to convincingly show that Eastman’s remarks to a Jan. 6 rally — which preceded the violent assault on the Capitol — played a role in ginning up the subsequent attack.

Roland said her disbarment recommendation was in part based on Eastman’s refusal to express regret and his attacks on the proceedings against him as politically motivated.

“Eastman has exhibited an unwillingness to acknowledge any ethical lapses regarding his actions, demonstrating an apparent inability to accept responsibility,” she wrote. “This lack of remorse and accountability presents a significant risk that Eastman may engage in further unethical conduct, compounding the threat to the public.”

Eastman testified for hours during his disbarment trial, claiming that he relied on a cadre of statisticians and data analysts to conclude that the 2020 election was rife with misconduct and that state legislatures in a handful of swing states should step in to replace Joe Biden’s electors with Trump’s. But Roland said those analysts’ claims were easily refuted by expert testimony, and Eastman should have known better than to rely on them.

In addition, Roland concluded that Eastman stretched and contorted even his own outlier theories to pressure then-Vice President Mike Pence to single-handedly block Joe Biden’s victory, even when no state legislatures had signed onto the effort.

Eastman’s pending disbarment compounds the legal trouble he’s facing in other states. He’s been charged alongside Trump and other allies in Fulton County, Georgia, as a member of an alleged racketeering conspiracy aimed at corrupting the results of the 2020 election in the state. He was also identified, but not named, in Trump’s federal indictment in Washington, D.C., as one of six unindicted co-conspirators assisting Trump’s bid to seize a second term.

Eastman’s trial, which spanned portions of six months last year, was the most exacting test of the legal theories he employed that nearly upended the transfer of presidential power for the first time in American history. Witnesses for the state bar discipline authorities included top election officials in several states challenged by Trump, constitutional law expert Matthew Seligman and even Eastman himself.

Eastman first came into Trump’s orbit in September 2020, when Trump tasked another lawyer, Cleta Mitchell, to put together a team of election lawyers to prepare for post-election challenges. In early November 2020, Mitchell encouraged Eastman to craft a legal argument in favor of state legislatures overturning election results.

By early December, Eastman had been engaged by the Trump campaign to represent Trump in ongoing legal challenges to the election results in Georgia and at the Supreme Court.

As Trump’s legal challenges faltered, Eastman turned his focus to the Jan. 6, 2021, session of Congress, when the House and Senate were required to meet — in a session overseen by Pence. Eastman drafted memos describing “scenarios” in which Pence asserted the unilateral authority to refuse to count some of Biden’s presidential electors, forcing a delay in the election and giving more time for state legislatures to consider reversing Trump’s defeat.

Pence, however, refused to adopt Eastman’s theory, saying it would be illegal and unconstitutional, and ultimately upheld the certified election results in all 50 states, ensuring Biden’s victory. Eastman famously argued with Pence’s legal counsel, Greg Jacob, by email, encouraging Pence to reconsider his position, even as rioters attacked the Capitol and forced Pence and Congress into hiding.