A federal judge in California previously found that Trump and Eastman more likely than not violated two felony statutes in their attempts to overturn the election: obstruction of an official proceeding and conspiracy to defraud the United States. John Eastman was a little-known but respected conservative lawyer. The judge ordered the emails released to Eastman's legal team to identify which they asserted were privileged, before allowing a third party to scrutinize them. Eastman has drawn scorn from some of his colleagues. As the president's actual attorneys backed away from his coup, Eastman rushed in to . Chesebro continued, "We want to frame things so that Thomas could be the one to issue some sort of stay or other circuit justice opinion saying Georgia is in legitimate doubt." John Eastman, the former Donald Trump lawyer and possible future Trump co-defendant, has added the potential loss of his California law license to his list of troubles. John Eastman and his wife Elizabeth C'de Baca Eastman. ", "John Eastman, who pushed a plan to reject Electoral College results, asked for a pardon shortly after Jan. 6", "Eastman sought White House pardon after Jan. 6", "Ex-Law Professor Says His Words at 'Save America' Rally Did Not Incite U.S. Capitol Siege", "Trump lawyer John Eastman: Rally, insurrection not connected", "Rallies ahead of Capitol riot were planned by established Washington insiders", "F.B.I. Axios also criticized Eastman for dismissing the eligibility concerns of 2016 presidential candidate Ted Cruz, born in Calgary, Canada, in a 2016 National Review op-ed, claiming they were "silly". John Eastman, a Republican lawyer who allegedly played a leading role in the overall coup scheme, reportedly pleaded the Fifth with both the Jan. 6 committee and a Georgia special grand jury . Several news outlets reported Wednesday the committee got emails between Eastman and Ginni Thomas, a right-wing activist married to Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas who pushed to overturn Bidens winbut the emails contents arent known. [94] CNN reported Eastman met with the committee but invoked the Fifth Amendment 146 times. The judge further denied Eastman's second choice, "Taxpayer Advocate/Attorney", but accepted his third choice, "Constitutional Law Attorney". The state bar of California charged Eastman, a former personal lawyer to Trump, with 11 counts of ethics violations, including misleading courts and making false public statements about voter. In the months following the election, however, the Trump campaign received information from numerous credible sources, including Attorney General of the United States William Barr and members of Trumps inner circle of advisors, that there was no evidence of widespread election fraud or illegality that could have affected the outcome of the election, the notice states. John L. Eastman, McCartney's Lawyer in Beatles' Strife, Dies at 83 An entertainment attorney for high-profile clients, he was central to a battle over control of the Beatles' business. More than 60 courts rejected election fraud claims by Trump and his allies. But John Lennon and the other Beatles had selected another New Yorker to manage the group: Allen Klein, who had worked with Sam Cooke and the Rolling Stones. [50], All prominent legal scholars disagreed with Eastman's position, and many compared it to the birtherism theory against President Barack Obama. The Daily Beast reports that the plaintiffs are seeking to pierce attorney-client privilege under the crime-fraud . Lawyer John Eastman has been hit with disciplinary charges and should be disbarred for his alleged involvement in former President Donald Trump's bid to throw out the 2020 election results,. (Photo by MANDEL NGAN/AFP via Getty Images) FBI seized the phone of former President Donald Trump's election attorney John Eastman last week, according to a new court filing from the conservative lawyer. Last week, Carter ruled 440 records were privileged but ordered Eastman to hand over another 159. [115], Judge Carter ruled in October 2022 that Eastman must turn over an additional 33 documents to the January 6 committee, including eight he determined were ineligible for attorney-client privilege because they related to possible criminal activity. A private Facebook group named "FrontLiners for Liberty," which included over 50 people and was created in August 2020, showed Thomas as an administrator. On that day, Eastman emailed a Pence aide claiming the attack on the Capitol happened because the vice president did not do what was necessary, the Washington Post reported. (Jim Bourg/Reuters) In extensive conversations with NR, the . The strategy hinged partly on a dubious plan to get swing-state Republicans to sign off on alternate electors falsely deeming Trumpnot Bidento be the winner of their states: In a set of December 2020 emails to one Pennsylvania GOP lawmaker, Eastman suggested legislators could assert the right to appoint an alternate slate of electors or subtract mail-in ballots from Trump and Bidens totals at a prorated amount.. Bannon: I'm going to start with John Eastman. An entertainment attorney for high-profile clients, he was central to a battle over control of the Beatles business empire in the last days of the band. John Lindner Eastman was born on July 10, 1939, in Manhattan, and grew up in Scarsdale, N.Y., the eldest of four children of Lee and Louise Lindner Eastman. John Eastman '64, an entertainment lawyer who represented Paul McCartney, the family of Willem de Kooning, and the estate of Francis Bacon, among other clients, passed away on August 10 at the age of 83. August 25, 2022 John Eastman, a prominent entertainment lawyer whose clients included the musicians Paul McCartney and Billy Joel, the Abstract Expressionist painter Willem de Kooning, and. Even after the insurrection, Eastman was still trying to overturn the election Even after Jan. 6, Eastman was still talking about the 2020 election not yet being certain. John was a great man, Mr. McCartney wrote on Twitter last week, along with a photo of him with Mr. Eastman in yoga poses. [114] Federal investigators obtained a subsequent warrant to search the phone on July 12. He was fierce when it came to protecting artists rights, Mr. Joel said in a statement to The New York Times, and I credit him with whatever longevity I have achieved in my career.. A professor at Chapman University Law School in Southern California until mid-January 2021, and once a clerk for Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, Eastman was a former . John Eastman, an entertainment lawyer and brother of Paul McCartney's first wife, Linda, nabbed a Carnegie Hill co-op for $26.5 million, property records show. [71][72] That same day, together with Giuliani and Boris Epshteyn, he appeared on Steve Bannon's podcast The War Room and promoted the idea that state lawmakers needed to reconsider the election results. The Eastmans became involved in the fight over the Beatles business empire in early 1969. [35] On April 1, a Superior Court judge denied Eastman's choice for ballot designation as "Assistant Attorney General", fearing that use of this title, temporarily granted by South Dakota for his work on a lawsuit, would be misperceived as a California title. [105], In a late-night court filing on May 19, 2022, Eastman disclosed he had routinely communicated with Trump directly or via "six conduits" regarding legal strategy leading up to January 6, detailing "two hand-written notes from former President Trump about information that he thought might be useful for the anticipated litigation." An analysis of Eastman's profile in the nearly 40 years before he became President Trump's lawyer, along with interviews with more than a dozen friends and associates, reveal how Eastman's. But Eastman seemed to initially enter Trumps orbit after a 2019 appearance on Fox News, which led Trump to invite Eastman to the Oval Office, the New York Times reported last year. [103][104], In May 2022, the University of Colorado, where Eastman was a visiting professor, released an email Eastman sent to Pennsylvania legislator Russ Diamond in December 2020. [57] He also asserted in October that a scenario in which Pence would reject ballots was "foolish" and "crazy," further claiming he had told Pence during their Oval Office meeting that his proposal was an "open question" and "the weaker argument". UpdateJan. Before he urged Vice President Mike Pence to unilaterally hand the 2020 election to Donald Trump, right-wing lawyer John Eastman, who represented Trump after the election, floated a somewhat. [122]. After CNBC asked Thomas about the group, its public pages were either made private or deleted. February 14, 2022. The request came a few days after a heated exchange between Herschmann and Eastman that ended with Herschmann suggesting that Eastman hire a criminal defense lawyer. That lawyer, John Eastman, is a member in good standing of the conservative legal establishment. Its not clear when Eastman formally became Trumps attorney, but he revealed in a legal filing last month that he sometimes communicated directly with Trump, and the former president sent the attorney at least two hand-written notes.. In addition to his son Lee, he is survived by his wife, Josephine; another son, Jay; a daughter, Louise; two sisters, Louise Weed and Laura Malcolm; and 11 grandchildren. [31], In 1990 Eastman was unopposed in the primary to become the Republican challenger of long-time 34th District incumbent Esteban Torres in California's San Gabriel Valley. Eastman and President Trump launched a campaign to overturn a democratic election, an action unprecedented in American history, Carter wrote in a March ruling. They stated there was no connection between the op-ed and the birther movement. 6." "[123], On January 9, 2021, the chairman of Chapman's board of trustees and two other members (including former Democratic Congresswoman Loretta Sanchez) called on the university's president and provost and the law school's dean "to promptly take action against Eastman for his role in the events of Jan. In the December 4, 2020 email, Thomas invited Eastman to speak four days later at a gathering of "Frontliners," which she described as a group of "grassroots state leaders." [72] On January 5, 2021, Eastman met with Pence in the Oval Office to argue, incorrectly, that the vice president has the constitutional authority to alter or otherwise change electoral votes. We've received your submission. Eastman faces 11 disciplinary charges, all arising from allegations that he was behind Trumps plan to obstruct the count of electoral votes. [63][64] The day of the Trump retweet, someone in the Trump administration called Eastman asking him to write a memo "asserting the vice president's power to hold up the certification" of the presidential election. A letter signed by three of the Beatles in 1969 during a legal fight over control of the groups business empire. The other Beatles responded to the lawsuit in frustration. Aside from Mr. McCartney, they were best known for working with Mr. Joel in the late 1980s and early 90s, when he sued his former manager and lawyer. [85][86], Appearing on CNN on January 23 to argue that the Trump rally did not incite the siege of the Capitol, Eastman asserted that "a paramilitary group as well as antifa groups" had been organizing "three or four days ahead of time". [51] However, Axios noted that other constitutional scholars do not accept Eastman's view, labeling it "baseless". (Chesebro apparently referred to Trump's tweet five days earlier inviting supporters to a "wild" January 6 protest.) Eastman wrote: "the odds are not based on the legal merits but an assessment of the justices spines." Newsweek defended the column, while acknowledging that they were "horrified that this op-ed gave rise to a wave of vile Birtherism directed at Senator Harris". The State Bar of Californias Chief Trial Counsel George Cardona intends to seek Eastmans disbarment for alleged violations of Business and Professions Code section 6106, which punishes making false and misleading statements that constitute acts of moral turpitude, dishonesty, and corruption., There is nothing more sacrosanct to our American democracy than free and fair elections and the peaceful transfer of power, Cardona said in a statement. His reporting on the trial of Ghislaine Maxwell was featured on the Starz and Channel 4 documentary "Who Is Ghislaine Maxwell?" Carter wrote that Trump and Eastman likely conspired in criminal obstruction of Congress, adding, "If Dr. Eastman and President Trumps plan had worked, it would have permanently ended the peaceful transition of power, undermining American democracy and the Constitution. John Eastman, the mediocre lawyer who apparently participated in a treasonous effort to veto the 2020 U.S. Presidential popular vote and electoral count, resides in Santa Fe, which annoys many . Trump acknowledged Eastman's help during his speech Jan. 6, 2021. He later joined Chapman to teach constitutional law. Mr. McCartney had tried to persuade his bandmates to allow Mr. Eastman to represent them. The Supreme Court has held this since the 1890s. Former lawyer of former President Donald Trump, John Eastman, appears on screen during the fourth hearing by the House Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the US Capitol in the Cannon House Office Building on June 21, 2022 in Washington, DC. [121] On January 26, 2023, Eastman was charged with multiple disciplinary counts by the State Bar of California. The emails were stored on servers at Eastman's former employer, Chapman University, which had been subpoenaed and did not object to their release. Carter noted one email in particular that contained what he found was likely evidence of a crime and ordered it disclosed under the crime-fraud exception to the attorney-client privilege. He then earned his Juris Doctor from the University of Chicago Law School, and a Doctor of Philosophy in Government from the Claremont Graduate School. ", Video (4:48) John Eastman Defends Trying To Overturn 2020 Election, Dean of the Chapman University School of Law, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=John_Eastman&oldid=1139934632, Law clerks of the Supreme Court of the United States, National Organization for Marriage people, Controversies of the 2020 United States presidential election, Pages using cite court with unknown parameters, Short description is different from Wikidata, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License 3.0, This page was last edited on 17 February 2023, at 16:12. The briefing included Giuliani; John Eastman, the attorney behind the theory that Vice President Mike Pence could reject the Electoral College results; White House trade adviser Peter Navarro . [2][5] He is a former law clerk to Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas. John Eastman, the former brother-in-law of Paul McCartney, died at age 83 of pancreatic cancer, the former Beatle announced on social media on Thursday. They developed a specialty in working with pop musicians whose business had suffered under previous representatives. Lawyer John Eastman had claimed the situation had turned him into a "pseudo . Trump lawyer John Eastman, left, is seen in a video during a hearing of the House select committee investigating the Jan. 6 insurrection on Thursday. [4] He ran unsuccessfully as a Republican for California's 34th congressional district in 1990, and for the office of California Attorney General in 2010. "My dear brother-in-law, John. ET: This story has been updated to include more information about the disciplinary charges from the notice filed by the bar. The lawyer also repped Trump, 76, in a Supreme Court case seeking to overturn the election results in four states where Trump alleged there d been voter fraud. Chesebro had emailed Rudy Giuliani 11 days earlier with a proposal for Pence to recuse himself from the January 6 certification so a senior Republican senator could count fraudulent elector slates to declare Trump the victor. Yates declined to answer . In March, federal Judge David Carter called Eastman and Trumps post-election efforts a coup in search of a legal theory, and argued its more likely than not that President Trump and Dr. Eastman dishonestly conspired to obstruct the Joint Session of Congress., Dr. Mr. Eastman was the brother of Linda McCartney, Mr. McCartneys first wife, and Lee was her father. Emailus. The Notice of Disciplinary Charges alleges that Mr. Eastman violated this duty in furtherance of an attempt to usurp the will of the American people and overturn election results for the highest office in the land an egregious and unprecedented attack on our democracy for which he must be held accountable, Cardona said. Some legal experts said his continued efforts might increase his criminal legal exposure, though if he were charged he might assert his persistent efforts showed he truly believed the election was stolen. Eastman laid out this plan in a pair of January 2021 memos obtained by news outlets last year, and reportedly spoke with Pence and his team in the leadup to January 6 to win him overbut Pence and his advisors firmly rejected Eastmans argument.