The third day of the State Bar of California (SBC) disbarment trial of Trump attorney John Eastman took place on Thursday, with the SBC calling Maricopa County Recorder Stephen Richer and Jonathan Marks, Deputy Secretary for Elections and Commissions in Pennsylvania, as witnesses. Richer is a Republican who started a PAC for election fraud-denying Republicans, and Marks was appointed to the position under then-Secretary of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania Kathryn Boockvar, a Democrat. The SBC is asserting that Eastman violated attorney ethics rules by advising Donald Trump and state legislatures on how they could reject certifying electoral votes from states suspected of electoral fraud in the 2020 election.
Attorneys for the SBC and Richer conducted direct and cross-examination of the two witnesses. Shortly into the direct examination of Richer, as he began testifying about his confidence regarding Dominion voting machine tabulators, Eastman’s attorney Randy Miller expressed his concern to the SBC disciplinary Judge Yvette Roland that she was allowing the SBC’s witnesses like Richer to present one side but not allowing Eastman’s witnesses to testify on the same topic. He said it was “quite prejudicial,” only “getting half the story.” Roland did not change her mind.
SBC attorney Duncan Carling asked Richer several questions about the firm that performed an independent audit of Maricopa County’s 2020 election, the Cyber Ninjas. Richer said they were “a bunch of imbeciles” who “probably fudged those numbers,” referring to recently released text messages where he said owner Doug Logan instructed those involved to use numbers “as long as it was close.”
Richer said the Maricopa County Supervisors are composed of four Republicans and one Democrat, adding, “one Republican has been lockstep with me — the truth — the entire time.” Richer was apparently referring to Bill Gates, who frequently makes similar public statements to Richer, declaring that there was no election fraud.
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