The fourth week of the disbarment trial of Donald Trump’s attorney John Eastman resumed on Tuesday, with State Bar of California attorney Duncan Carling continuing his cross-examination of the constitutional scholar. The bar is trying to take away his license to practice law due to advising Trump that Vice President Mike Pence may have had the authority to reject electoral slates from states suspected of election fraud.
Judge Yvette Roland told Eastman multiple times while he was testifying that he wasn’t an expert on the subject. A constitutional attorney who has watched the entire trial so far but who declined to be identified for fear of retaliation told The Arizona Sun Times, “Eastman is not an expert on this. He is THE expert on this.”
Eastman’s attorney Randy Miller asked Roland about their Motion for Abatement, requesting that the trial be postponed until after the criminal prosecution in Georgia ends. Fulton County DA Fani Willis indicted Eastman along with Trump and 18 others last month. Miller argued that it would be difficult for Eastman to defend himself in both trials simultaneously. Usually when there are criminal and civil trials both taking place against a defendant, the civil one will be postponed until after the criminal one. Miller said that three of the witnesses who were on the pretrial list to testify on behalf of Eastman can no longer testify for fear of implicating themselves in the criminal proceeding, which further places Eastman at a disadvantage. Roland dismissed their concerns.
Carling asked Eastman whether the alternate slates of electors had “legal authority” backing them, citing a memo Eastman had written previously where he admitted they had no authority due to not having a Certificate of Ascertainment from state officials. Eastman explained that they had similar authority to the alternate slate of electors in Hawaii in 1960. There, Hawaii’s electors submitted a slate of electors for Richard Nixon, then Democrats submitted a competing uncertified slate for John F. Kennedy. After court proceedings over the matter finished, it was determined that Kennedy really won, and so the slate for Kennedy was ultimately accepted.
Read the rest of the article at The Arizona Sun Times