Judge Shuts Down Trump ‘Coup Memo’ Scribe John Eastman’s ‘Expert’ Witness

A disbarment hearing for conservative attorney and former Trumpworld figure John Eastman kicked off Tuesday in Los Angeles. Of particular focus in what is expected to be at least an eight-day affair will be Eastman’s involvement in the development of a bonkers legal plot to keep Donald Trump in the White House, including his authorship of the so-called “coup memo.”

A highlight of Tuesday’s proceedings was Eastman’s attempt to call a man named Joseph Fried as an expert witness. Fried is a public accountant who wrote an eBook that questioned the legitimacy of Biden’s presidential win. California State Bar Court Judge Yvette Roland saw right through the strange request.

“I don’t see how Mr. Fried is qualified to be an expert,” she told Eastman, according to an NPR reporter in the courtroom. “He has no experience in voting or election matters.”

State bar attorney Duncan Carling agreed. “We don’t believe the opinion of a CPA... is relevant,” he said, adding that the accountant “never identified any instances of fraud” in the election.

It was a rough start for Eastman, who is at risk of losing his law license in the state of California. He faces 11 disciplinary charges related to his alleged efforts to carve a legal pathway whereby then-Vice President Mike Pence could reject Joe Biden’s election win.

If it finds him culpable of the charges, the Los Angeles court is expected to make a suggestion as to a possible penalty, including the suspension or revocation of his law license. The California Supreme Court would then take up the matter and give a final ruling.

Randal Miller, Eastman’s lawyer, insisted his client’s actions were protected under the First Amendment in opening statements on Tuesday. “Lawyers get to argue debatable issues, which is what Dr. Eastman did,” Miller said, according to The Washington Post.

Carling, the state bar prosecutor, dismissed that argument. In his opening statement, he framed Eastman’s actions as a “last-ditch effort” in a long saga “of increasingly desperate attempts to overturn the election” riddled with falsehoods and baseless claims about voter fraud.

“He was fully aware in real time that his plan was damaging the nation,” Carling added.

He also alleged that “Dr. Eastman sought at every turn to avoid every public test of his theory, and he privately confessed… that his theory had no chance of persuading the court.”

To back this up, Carling pointed to an email exchange between Eastman and then-Pence attorney Greg Jacob. At one point, according to Carling, Jacob told Eastman he was being “gravely irresponsible” to “entice the president with an academic theory that had no legal viability and you would well know we would lose in front of any judge who heard the case.”

In another email shared by an independent journalist in the courtroom, Jacob wrote, “And thanks to your bullshit, we are now under siege.”

Miller characterized the email exchange as “two smart people” having “an honest debate held in good faith.”

Eastman was admitted to the California State Bar in 1997, according to its website. He served as the dean of the law school of Chapman University until last year, when he retired after more than 150 faculty members protested his actions on Jan. 6 in a letter.

Read more at The Daily Beast.

Get the Daily Beast's biggest scoops and scandals delivered right to your inbox. Sign up now.

Stay informed and gain unlimited access to the Daily Beast's unmatched reporting. Subscribe now.