Global Courant
LOS ANGELES (AP) — An attempt to dethrone conservative attorney John Eastman, who devised ways to do just that former President Donald Trump in the White House after his defeat in the 2020 election, begins Tuesday in Los Angeles.
Eastman is expected to testify all day before the State Bar of California in a suit that could result in him losing his license to practice law in the state. He stands for 11 disciplinary charges stemming from his development of a dubious legal strategy aimed at keeping Trump in power by interfering with the counting of the state’s electoral votes.
The State Bar counsel will seek Eastman’s suspension at a State Bar Court hearing that is expected to last at least eight days. If the court finds Eastman guilty of the alleged offenses, it may recommend punishment, such as suspending or revoking his law license. The Supreme Court of California makes the final decision.
Eastman will testify in his own defense on Tuesday. The proceedings will include witnesses such as Greg Jacob, a former attorney for then-Vice President Mike Pence who opposed Eastman’s plan to have Pence stop certifying Joe Biden’s victory.
Eastman was one of Trump’s lawyers during the election. He argued in a memo that Pence could keep Trump in power by overturning the results of the election at a joint session of Congress convened to count the electoral votes. Critics have likened that to instructions for committing a coup d’état.
Eastman violated California’s Code of Business and Ethics by making false and misleading statements amounting to acts of “moral malpractice, dishonesty and corruption,” the State Bar alleges, and in so doing “breached this duty in furtherance of an attempted to appropriate the will”. of the American people and election results for the highest office in the land – a blatant and unprecedented assault on our democracy.”
Eastman’s lawyer previously said his client disputes “every aspect” of the allegations.
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The State Bar action “is part of a nationwide effort to use the bar discipline process to punish lawyers who opposed the current administration during the last presidential election. Americans of both political parties should be concerned about this politicization of our nation’s bars,” Eastman’s attorney, Randall A. Miller, said in a statement when the indictment was announced in January.
According to the website, Eastman has been a member of the California Bar since 1997. He was a clerk for U.S. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas and a founding member of the Center for Constitutional Jurisprudence, a law firm affiliated with the Claremont Institute. He ran for California Attorney General in 2010 and finished second in the Republican primary.
Eastman retired as dean of law school at Chapman University in Southern California last year after more than 160 faculty members signed a letter calling for the university to take action against him.
The California State Bar is a regulatory body and the only legal system in the US dedicated to the discipline of lawyers.
Eastman’s disciplinary hearing comes as Special Prosecutor Jack Smith continues its investigation into efforts by Trump and his allies to reverse the results of the 2020 election.
A federal grand jury in Washington has been meeting behind closed doors for months to hear testimony from witnesses, including Pence, who has publicly described a pressure campaign by Trump to get him to stop Congressional certification of the election results.
Federal agents seized Eastman’s cell phone last summer when he left a restaurant, he said in a lawsuit. That same day, law enforcement officers conducted similar activities across the country as part of the investigation.
Since Smith’s appointment in November, he has cast a wide network in demanding interviews and testimony related to fundraising, the Trump rally that preceded it. the riot on January 6, 2021, and communications between Trump aides and election officials in battlefield states. Eastman spoke at the meeting.
In December, Smith subpoenaed local election officials in Wisconsin, Michigan, Arizona and Pennsylvania, asking for communication with or involvement from Trump, his 2020 campaign aides and a list of allies — including Eastman — involved in his attempts to overturn the results of the elections.
The research is unrelated to another study by Smith into classified documents found at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate that led to crimes against Trump this month. Trump pleaded not guilty last week to 37 felonies, including conspiracy to obstruct justice.
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Associated Press writer Alanna Durkin Richer contributed from Boston.
