"My dear brother-in-law, John Eastman, has passed . 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. "[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. The Bar's investigation, announced Tuesday, March 1, focuses on whether Eastman "engaged in conduct in violation of California law and ethics rules governing attorneys following and in . Carter found that one Eastman email exchange showed Trump had sworn under oath that the number of alleged voting fraud cases his attorneys cited in a Georgia federal suit was accurate, though he knew it was not. "John was a great man," McCartney wrote in an Instagram post announcing Eastman's death. But of all of them, the lawyers were most closely associated with Mr. McCartney, whom Mr. Eastman represented for more than 50 years. - No, John Eastman, you can't edit your own article here", "Born in the USA-Rethinking Birthright Citizenship in the Wake of 9/11. Eastman still persisted with his election fraud claims long after that date, through at least Jan. 6, 2021. 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. He was a dean and professor at the Chapman University School of Law. The case was settled, and the Eastmans helped Mr. Joel rebuild his business. 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. 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. 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. [117], On October 4, 2021, a bipartisan group of attorneys, including two former federal judges and two former justices of the California Supreme Court, filed a complaint with the State Bar of California asking for an investigation of Eastman relating to "his representation of former President Donald J. Trump in efforts to discredit and overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election. Eastman responded that "Mike Pence is an establishment guy" who fears that Trump is "destroying the inside-the-Beltway Republican Party. [112][113] Federal judge Robert Brack rejected Eastman's request on July 15. 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. "[107], On June 15, 2022, the Washington Post reported that the January 6 committee had recently acquired emails between Eastman and Ginni Thomas, wife of Supreme Court justice Clarence Thomas,[108] and the New York Times reported that the committee had obtained the EastmanChesebro email exchange from December 24, 2020. [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. As a subscriber, you have 10 gift articles to give each month. Chapman University law professor John Eastman. Donald Trump appears to have committed multiple felonies as he sought to return himself to power on 6 January, a judge said in a Monday ruling that ordered the Trump lawyer John Eastman to. Mr. McCartney half-complied: He appeared in a suit, but no tie. Giuliani will join his colleague John Eastman in the dubious distinction of . For the member of the Wisconsin State Senate, see, Legal strategies to reject electoral votes, Actions during the January 6th attack on the Capitol, United States House Select Committee on the January 6 Attack, United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit, 2010 California Attorney General election, challenge the results of the 2020 United States presidential election, Attempts to overturn the 2020 United States presidential election, 2021 storming of the United States Capitol, crime-fraud exception to the attorney-client privilege, List of law clerks of the Supreme Court of the United States (Seat 10), "Who is 'Coup Memo' author John Eastman and what role did he play in pushing Trump's plan to derail democracy? ", "Some questions for Kamala Harris about eligibility | Opinion", "Editor's Note: Eastman's Newsweek column has nothing to do with racist birtherism", "Trump campaign official pushes baseless Newsweek op-ed claiming Harris may not be VP-eligible", "Trump stokes 'birther' conspiracy theory about Kamala Harris", "Trump Encourages Racist Conspiracy Theory About Kamala Harris", "Yes, Kamala Harris is eligible to be vice president | Opinion", "About That Right-Wing Argument That Kamala Harris Isn't A Citizen", "The Lawyer Behind the Memo on How Trump Could Stay in Office", "Trump and his GOP loyalists seek to pile on Supreme Court election challenge", "State of Texas, plaintiff, v. Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, State of Georgia, State of Michigan, and State of Wisconsin, defendants", "Supreme Court Rejects Texas Challenge to Biden's Victory in Presidential Election", "Supreme Court Rejects Texas Suit Seeking to Subvert Election", "The military-intelligence veterans who helped lead Trump's campaign of disinformation", "Trump Lawyer Cited 'Heated Fight' Among Justices Over Election Suits", "Email to Giuliani reveals plan to keep Trump in office on Jan. 6, court records show", "Trump's pressure on Georgia election officials raises legal questions", "Jan. 6th hearing: How Eastman tried to gat Pence to reject electoral votes", "Pence Reached His Limit With Trump. The 11 charges arise from allegations that Eastman engaged in a course of conduct to plan, promote, and assist then-President Trump in executing a strategy, unsupported by facts or law, to overturn the legitimate results of the 2020 presidential election by obstructing the count of electoral votes of certain states, the bar wrote in a press release. Mr. Eastman and his father, who was also named Lee, worked with a long roster of big-name clients over the years, including Andrew Lloyd Webber, David Bowie, Elton John and the estates of Tennessee Williams and the painter Francis Bacon. 193726), a California licensed attorney. "There is nothing more sacrosanct to our American democracy than free and fair elections and the peaceful transfer of power." At Wikipedia, don't even ask. He has also appeared on conservative pundit Hugh Hewitt's Fox News program The Hugh Hewitt Show, commenting on law. 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. [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". God do I love this guy. Thomas was the justice assigned to hear emergency arguments from cases in Georgia. As Trumps legal avenues to overturn his reelection loss grew thinner, Eastman offered up an unconventional strategy based on fringe legal theories: Eastman argued Vice President Mike Pencein his role as Senate presidentcould refuse to count some of Bidens electoral votes during the joint session of Congress on January 6, 2021. 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. 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.. [124][125] Four days later, Chapman announced that Eastman had agreed to retire from the university, and the university's president, Daniele C. Struppa, said that Eastman and the university had "agreed not to engage in legal actions of any kind, including any claim of defamation that may currently exist, as both parties move forward". Eastman also sent to Republican senator Mike Lee a six-point plan of action for Pence to throw out the electors from seven states to keep Trump in power, which Lee rejected. The Daily Mail reports that John died on Tuesday, August 9th, after a brief battle with pancreatic cancer. citizen. Eastman made the disclosure to claim attorney-client privilege to prevent the January 6 committee from obtaining 600 of his emails. 6." The group's front page carried a banner stating, "the enemy of Americais the radical fascist left." John Eastman was a little-known but respected conservative lawyer. [62], On December 22, 2020, Ivan Raiklin, an attorney and associate of Michael Flynn, tweeted to Trump a two-page memo entitled "Operation Pence Card," which Trump retweeted two days later. A former clerk to Associate Justice Clarence Thomas, Eastman helms the Center for. It owns many valuable copyrights, including the music publishing rights to songs by Buddy Holly, Fats Waller and Carl Perkins and from hit Broadway shows like Annie and Grease.. Have a tip or story idea? Eastman purchased the unit at. The Thomas email was among those Carter ordered Eastman to release to the January 6 committee. The State Bar of California unveiled new disciplinary charges against John Eastman for his involvement in former President Donald Trump's efforts to block th. ", "Here's Kamala Harris' birth certificate. Or to keep it anonymous, click here. The next year, after briefly working in the office of the United States attorney for the Eastern District of New York, he and his father set up Eastman & Eastman. [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. Bannon: I'm going to start with John Eastman. [51] However, Axios noted that other constitutional scholars do not accept Eastman's view, labeling it "baseless". Their connection was both professional and personal. 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. The conflict between Mr. Klein and the Eastmans, and the disagreement within the group over those men, would consume the Beatles for years to come, even after their official breakup in 1970. [18][19] On March 28, 2022, federal judge David O. Carter found Eastman, along with Trump, was more likely than not to have "dishonestly conspired to obstruct the joint session of Congress on Jan. 6, 2021". The California bar determined Eastman made, "false and misleading statements that constitute acts of dishonesty, and corruption." "[53] Harvard Professor Laurence Tribe was similarly dismissive, telling The New York Times "I hadnt wanted to comment on [Eastmans idea] because it's such an idiotic theory. [36] Eastman finished second in the three-way Republican primary with 34.2% of the vote, behind Los Angeles County District Attorney Steve Cooley, who received 47.3%. (Jim Bourg/Reuters) In extensive conversations with NR, the . Ten documents related to three December 2020 meetings by a secretive group strategizing about how to overturn the election, which included what Carter characterized as a "high-profile" leader. [50], All prominent legal scholars disagreed with Eastman's position, and many compared it to the birtherism theory against President Barack Obama. Separately, in one December 2020 email, Eastman alluded to a heated fight over whether the Supreme Court should take up an election challenge, the New York Times reported Wednesday. [75][76][77], On January 6, Eastman spoke alongside Giuliani at the "Save America" rally that preceded the 2021 storming of the United States Capitol and asserted without evidence that balloting machines contained "secret folders" that altered voting results. Any lawyer engaged to provide his or her legal assessment in a dynamic, consequential, and often emotional arena should be deeply troubled by the notion that a licensing authority (bar) can take their license if they do not like the lawyers advice, or find the advocacy distasteful, Millers statement said. [128] The university also revoked some of Eastman's public-facing duties but permitted him to conduct scholarship. 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. The lawyer spoke at Trumps rally that day at the Ellipse. Eastman wrote: "the odds are not based on the legal merits but an assessment of the justices spines." Anyone can read what you share. Eastman retired from his position at Chapman less than a week later, claiming his colleagues had created a hostile environment. Meanwhile, the State Bar of California opened an ethics investigation into Eastman last year (State Bar spokesperson Rick Coca told Forbes the investigation remains pending, and Californias bar database lists Eastman as an active attorney with no disciplinary history). 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, 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 . 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. [52], Erwin Chemerinsky, the dean of Berkeley Law School, told the BBC, "Under section 1 of the 14th Amendment, anyone born in the United States is a United States citizen. Andy Cross/MediaNews Group/The Denver Post/Getty Images. [23], In 1989, prior to attending law school, Eastman served as the director of Congressional and public affairs at the United States Commission on Civil Rights. There is nothing to it. 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.. The California native attended Chapman University law school, where Donald Trump's election lawyer John Eastman formerly taught, before moving to Tennessee, and he served for a time as webmaster . Eastman replied by blaming Pence and Jacob for refusing to block certification of Trump's loss in the election, writing, "The siege is because YOU and your boss did not do what was necessary to allow this to be aired in a public way so that the American people can see for themselves what happened." [57], In early December 2020, Trump contacted Eastman, asking him to challenge the results of the 2020 United States presidential election before the Supreme Court. Thanks for contacting us. Trump lawyer John Eastman facing probe by California state bar | Reuters Newsletter | Sent every weekday. Trump did not issue a pardon to Eastman. [41][42] He is a director of the Public Interest Legal Foundation, which brings election lawsuits. Exclusive: Trump's Team Setting Up Eastman to Take Blame for Jan. 6. John L. Eastman, McCartneys Lawyer in Beatles Strife, Dies at 83, https://www.nytimes.com/2022/08/15/arts/music/john-l-eastman-dead.html. [17] On January 13, 2021, Eastman retired from the Chapman University faculty after the controversy created by his having spoken at the Trump rally. [120] Eastman's attorney said he expected Eastman to be exonerated. Eastman . Despite their enormous success, the Beatles were then on the brink of insolvency. For California attorneys, adherence to the U.S. and California Constitutions is their highest legal duty. [95], In an effort to withhold 19,000 emails subpoenaed by the committee, in January 2022 an attorney for Eastman told a federal judge that they were protected by attorney-client privilege because Eastman had been representing Trump while participating in the January 2 conference call with state legislators; the January 3 Oval Office meeting with Trump and Pence; and while working as a member of the Trump team at the Willard Hotel command center. Later in the day, when the rioters were expelled from the Capitol and Pence was again presiding over Congress, Eastman told Jacob in another e-mail that Pence should still refuse to certify the election results:[83] Now that the precedent has been set that the Electoral Count Act is not quite so sacrosanct as was previously claimed, I implore you to consider one more relatively minor violation and adjourn for 10 days to allow the legislatures to finish their investigations as well as to allow the full forensic audit of the massive amount of illegal activity that occurred here, Eastman wrote. stands onstage as Rudy Giuliani speaks in Washington on January 6, 2021. Chesebro responded: "the odds of action before Jan. 6 will become more favorable if the justices start to fear that there will be 'wild' chaos on Jan. 6 unless they rule by then, either way." 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. Eastman disclosed the. 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.. The Bar's committee chair said, "For California attorneys, adherence to the U.S. and California Constitutions is their highest legal duty,"[123] adding 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. Eastman emailed Giuliani, saying "I've decided that I should be on the pardon list if that is still in the works." In March 1971, the judge ruled in Mr. McCartneys favor, appointing a receiver for the Beatles business interests until the dissolution of their partnership could be negotiated, which came several years later. On this Wikipedia the language links are at the top of the page across from the article title. John Eastman, a law professor at the Fowler School of Law at Chapman University who had drawn increasing scrutiny over his controversial involvement with some of Donald Trump's more. Eastman attorney Randall Miller said in a lengthy statement that Eastman "disputes 'every aspect' of the action that has been filed against him by the State Bar," and alleged the charges were. Filing of a complaint "typically takes 2-3 weeks after getting authorization," Yates wrote to Newsline in an email Wednesday evening. Read the notice of the disciplinary charges below. A University of Chicago Law School graduate who clerked for Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, Eastman has taught constitutional law for decades. [20][21] In December 2022, the United States House Select Committee on the January 6 Attack recommended Eastman be charged with obstruction of an official proceeding and conspiracy to defraud the United States, along with Trump and potentially others. Eastman's brief included an array of unfounded claims and asserted "It is not necessary for [Trump] to prove that fraud occurred," and asserted it was enough to show that elections "materially deviated" from the intent of state lawmakers, adding, "By failing to follow the rule of law, these officials put our nation's belief in elected self-government at risk. [106], On June 7, Carter ruled that Eastman must disclose an additional 159 sensitive documents to the committee. [15], On January 6, 2021, Eastman presented a speech at the White House Trump rally that preceded the 2021 United States Capitol attack.