The second week of the State Bar of California’s (SBC) disbarment trial against Trump attorney John Eastman resumed on Thursday after a brief break due to one of the attorneys becoming sick. Throughout much of the day, SBC attorney Duncan Carling grilled Eastman about his allegations of illegal activity occurring in the 2020 election.
Carling repeated many of Eastman’s claims from the pleadings he filed in cases like Trump v. Raffensperger, prompting First Amendment attorney Mark Fitzgibbons to tweet, “The CA Bar lawyer is actually doing more to convince us the election illegalities merited what Prof Eastman recommended to his client. Courts rejecting cases on standing without EVER hearing evidence did a terrible injustice to the Constitution, and disenfranchised voters.”
He added, “It would almost be malpractice to ignore those election irregularities and activities that are suspicious on their face, I’d think.”
Judge Yvette Roland began the proceedings by stating that she would likely refuse to allow many of Eastman’s proposed witnesses to testify because their names were submitted after the pretrial statement was filed. Judges have the option to allow witnesses to testify whose names were submitted late because there may have been a reason a party did not know about them until later. Eastman’s witnesses include State Senator Wendy Rogers (R-Flagstaff) and former legislator Mark Finchem. Roland has excluded several of Eastman’s witnesses already. Eastman’s legal team filed a 473-page pleading to respond to the SBC’s Motion in Limine which explained why the witnesses were necessary.
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