The disbarment trial of Donald Trump’s former attorney and constitutional legal scholar, John Eastman, ended November 3, with closing written arguments submitted last Friday. California Bar Disciplinary Judge Yvette Roland announced at the end of the trial that she found Eastman culpable, and will issue a written decision soon indicating whether she will fully disbar him or give a lesser punishment. Eastman is expected to appeal any negative decision.
The State Bar of California charged Eastman (pictured above) with violating his oath as an attorney to uphold the Constitution by providing the Trump administration with options to handle the 2020 election illegalities, including a couple of scenarios where former Vice President Mike Pence would delay or reject acceptance of the electoral slates from disputed states.
The charges asserted, “Dr. Eastman engag[ed] in a course of conduct … to plan, promote, execute, and assist Trump in executing a strategy for Trump to overturn the legitimate results of the election by obstructing the count of electoral votes of certain states, which strategy Dr. Eastman knew, or was grossly negligent in not knowing, was not supported by either the facts or law.” The California Bar stated that “no reasonable attorney” would have relied on the evidence of election illegalities, so Eastman’s legal advice was “frivolous.”
Eastman’s post-hearing brief said, “The premise of the State Bar’s charge against Dr. Eastman, which rests on these and other similar statements, has an Orwellian cast to it: the government has spoken, and if you disagree, then you must be lying. Two plus two equals five, after all, and if the government says so, you must not only repeat the lie, but you must come to believe it as well. This is authoritarianism, not republicanism.”
Read the rest of the article at The Arizona Sun Times
Subscribe to email updates from the Arizona Sun Times