The disbarment trial of Donald Trump’s former attorney and constitutional legal scholar John Eastman entered its fifth and likely final week on Tuesday, featuring testimony from Eastman and Kari Lake’s attorney Kurt Olsen. The State Bar of California is attempting to disbar Eastman for allegedly advising Trump and Vice President Mike Pence that Pence could reject electoral slates from states suspected of election fraud, but Eastman disputed that characterization of his advice on Tuesday.
Eastman said that Pence asked him during a meeting with Trump on January 4, 2020, if the vice president had the power to reject electoral votes. Eastman responded and said it was an open question that has never been resolved, but even if Pence had the power, it would be “foolish” to exercise it. Eastman advised Pence to consider having merely a brief delay in certification in order to allow the state legislatures to investigate whether there was illegal activity that affected the election.
Eastman further explained that he believed it would be “politically foolish” to reject the electoral slates from disputed states, since unlike previous historical situations such as Hawaii in 1960 where there were disputed slates, the contingent slates in 2020 hadn’t been certified by state governments.
Since Article II of the Constitution gives the power over how to choose electors to the state legislatures, Eastman said, if there was a violation of state laws by election officials, it was the legislatures’ prerogative to step in and fix the situation. He cited letters that state legislators co-signed — some with 90 to 100 legislators — listing off all the illegalities in the 2020 election. He added that courts later confirmed that illegal activity was occurring in the 2020 election in states like Wisconsin.
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