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John Eastman, one of the attorneys who backed former President Donald Trump’s dangerous attempt to overturn the 2020 election, will face disbarment proceedings in California.
The State Bar of California slapped Eastman, 62, with 11 disciplinary charges Thursday and said it would seek to give him the boot.
The office said Eastman assisted Trump in “executing a strategy, unsupported by facts or law, to overturn the legitimate results of the 2020 presidential election.”
Eastman drafted an infamous memo that suggested then-Vice President Mike Pence could refuse to count votes from certain states and thus keep Trump in office. Pence never went along with the idea.
As Trump and Eastman’s plan floundered, throngs of crazed Trump supporters stormed the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021 following a rally in which the lawyer was one of the speakers.
Eastman tried 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,” said George Cardona, chief trial attorney for the State Bar of California.
The office’s investigation into Eastman began last March. California’s supreme court will hear the case.
Eastman’s defense attorney Randall Miller said his client was simply carrying out his duty as Trump’s personal attorney. He described Eastman as “a lawyer, not Rasputin.”
Eastman was the dean of Chapman University’s law school in southern California until 160 faculty members called for his dismissal in response to his actions around the 2020 election. Eastman retired last year.
In December 2022, the House Jan. 6 committee referred Eastman for prosecution alongside Trump.
With News Wire Services
Joseph Wilkinson
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