[130][131], On January 7, 2021, Eastman edited this Wikipedia article to portray his post-election role in a more favorable light. 193726).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 . (Photo by MANDEL NGAN/AFP via Getty Images). He is the host of Law&Crime podcast "Objections: with Adam Klasfeld.". On June 27, Eastman asked a federal judge to compel the government to return his phone and destroy its records of the phone's contents. [57] Eastman called the vice president "the ultimate arbiter" of the election in his two-page memo. 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.. John Eastman, the conservative lawyer who helped lead former President Donald Trump's legal efforts to undermine the results of the 2020 presidential election, is facing disciplinary action in . An audience member asked, "Why do you think Mike Pence didn't do it?" 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. Eastman first emerged as a Trump-affiliated lawyer in December 2020, when he filed a brief asking the Supreme Court to let Trump intervene in a longshot lawsuit to toss out election results in four swing states won by Joe Biden, which ultimately failed. The California bar slapped former President Donald Trumps attorney John Eastman with nearly a dozen disciplinary charges for false and misleading statements alleging fraud in the 2020 election. Yates declined to answer . Mr. McCartney had tried to persuade his bandmates to allow Mr. Eastman to represent them. Eastman said that she could have subsequently obtained citizenship derived from the naturalization of her parents if one of them had become a citizen prior to her 16th birthday in 1980, which would have allowed Harris to fulfill the nine-year citizenship requirement necessary to become a senator. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene's campaign paid John Eastman in January for unspecified "legal services." The payment was made to Constitutional Counsel Group, a firm founded by the Trump lawyer.. The court had already rejected a major election challenge, Texas v. Pennsylvania, 13 days earlier, and the participants in Eastman's email exchange were discussing whether to file papers in the hopes that four U.S. Supreme Court justices would agree to hear a Wisconsin case. [2][3] He is a former professor and dean at the Chapman University School of Law. The judge further denied Eastman's second choice, "Taxpayer Advocate/Attorney", but accepted his third choice, "Constitutional Law Attorney". "[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. 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. [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. John L. Eastman, a lawyer for musicians and artists whose representation of famous clients like Paul McCartney, Billy Joel and Willem de Kooning made him a force in the entertainment world, and who played a key part in a power struggle over the control of the Beatles business in the last days of the band, died on Aug. 10 in East Hampton, N.Y. In 35-page notice of the disciplinary charges, the bars supervising attorney Duncan Carling wrote that Eastman had every opportunity to learn that his election fraud claims were baseless, including from top Trump officials. Mr. McCartney had hired the Eastmans, father and son, to be his representatives and tried to persuade his three bandmates to put them in charge of the groups affairs. On Thursday, McCartney, 80, posted to Instagram to share that Eastman, who was the brother of McCartney's late wife Linda McCartney, has died. Then he became influential with Donald Trump and counseled him on how to retain power after losing the election. 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. It Wasn't Pretty", "Fact check: No, Pence can't overturn the election results", "AP FACT CHECK: Trump's false claims, fuel on a day of chaos", "FACT CHECK: What Pence And Congress Can And Can't Do About The Election", "Chapman University will not fire law professor who spoke at pro-Trump Capitol rally", "Chapman University President Condemns Controversial Law Professor Who Aided Trump", "CU Boulder won't fire conservative scholar who spread "repugnant" conspiracy theories at D.C. rally", "Faculty call for firing of Chapman University professor who spoke at pro-Trump rally", "What if there had been no adults in the room on January 6? [114] Federal investigators obtained a subsequent warrant to search the phone on July 12. [90] Eastman referred to an "antifa and BLM guy" who had been arrested after the Capitol incursion, an apparent reference to John Earle Sullivan, a Utah man who some characterized as an "antifa leader" who had supposedly infiltrated the rally crowd to instigate the insurgency. The California bar determined Eastman made, "false and misleading statements that constitute acts of dishonesty, and corruption." Washington A federal judge on Tuesday ordered John Eastman, a conservative lawyer who devised the legal strategy to keep former President Donald Trump in power after he lost the 2020 election . The right-wing attorney who authored " coup memos " for Donald Trump and supporters on how to scuttle the presidential election lost a court battle Friday to hold back his documents from the House select committee investigating last year's Jan. 6 insurrection. [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. "[67], On December 24, 2020, in an email exchange with New York appellate attorney Kenneth Chesebro and Trump campaign officials, Eastman wrote he was aware of a "heated fight" within the Supreme Court about whether to hear a case. ", "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. [68] Eastman and the Thomases are longtime friends. [37] Cooley advanced to the 2010 California Attorney General election, where he was defeated by Kamala Harris. No law professor played a bigger role in Donald Trump's plot to overturn the election than John Eastman. 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. Eastman made the disclosure to claim attorney-client privilege to prevent the January 6 committee from obtaining 600 of his emails. 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. There is nothing to it. Mr. Klein had a reputation as a ferocious negotiator and, as Mick Jagger once described him, a gangster figure the opposite of the refined Eastmans, whose townhouse office in Manhattan was lined with museum-quality paintings by de Kooning and others. A private Facebook group named "FrontLiners for Liberty," which included over 50 people and was created in August 2020, showed Thomas as an administrator. John Charles Eastman (born 1960) is an American lawyer who is the founding director of the Center for Constitutional Jurisprudence, a public interest law firm affiliated with the conservative think tank Claremont Institute. Eastman responded that he was speaking two miles away from the Capitol building. Not only did he help me massively in my business dealings as my lawyer but as a friend he was hard to beat.. The House select committee investigating the January 6 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol is expected to subpoena John Eastman, the attorney who crafted a memo outlining strategies about how to. Kamala Harris was born in the United States. Andy Cross/MediaNews Group/The Denver Post/Getty Images. The Daily Beast reports that the plaintiffs are seeking to pierce attorney-client privilege under the crime-fraud . 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. The article was harshly criticized as both a bizarre reading of constitutional law and a possible wink to the birther conspiracy theory, which falsely contended former President Barack Obama wasnt born in the United States. Eastman asserted this had been reported by The Washington Post days earlier, though the article he appeared to reference did not support his assertion and did not mention antifa. 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. He later joined Chapman to teach constitutional law. Such designations typically reflect a candidate's current employment or elected office. [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. 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.. John Eastman was a little-known but respected conservative lawyer. 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. Thomas was the justice assigned to hear emergency arguments from cases in Georgia. Trump acknowledged Eastman's help during his speech Jan. 6, 2021. 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. 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. John Eastman on Thursday, April 29, 2021. Bannon: I'm going to start with John Eastman. 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. [66] In a video taken secretly and made public that same month, Eastman suggested he believed that Pence's actions served Washington politics. [32][33][34], On February 1, 2010, Eastman resigned as dean of the Chapman University School of Law to pursue the Republican nomination for California Attorney General. lose ballot fight", "Steve Cooley concedes race for attorney general to Kamala Harris", "Should the Federalist Society reckon with members who aided Trump's false election claims? (Reuters) -California attorney regulators said on Thursday they will seek to disbar attorney John Eastman over his involvement in former U.S. President Donald Trump's attempts to overturn the 2020 election. The two-page memo from attorney John Eastman first was reported in the new book "Peril" by Bob Woodward and Robert Costa; CNN also obtained a copy of the plan, which hinged on Electoral College . 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. [92][93], Eastman asserted his Fifth Amendment right to avoid self-incrimination on December 1, 2021, in a letter in which he refused to testify to the United States House Select Committee on the January 6 Attack. Eastman has received widespread attention for his role as attorney to then president Donald Trump during which he suggested that vice president Mike Pence could refuse the results of some states' election results during the 2020 United States presidential election. John Eastman, an ally of Donald Trump who authored a memo outlining how to . On this Wikipedia the language links are at the top of the page across from the article title. A letter signed by three of the Beatles in 1969 during a legal fight over control of the groups business empire. Chapman School of Law professor John Eastman testifies on Capitol Hill in Washington, March 16, 2017. [41][42] He is a director of the Public Interest Legal Foundation, which brings election lawsuits. [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". 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). Mr. Eastman served on the boards of a number of prominent organizations, including the American Museum of Natural History, and two music groups, the National Music Publishers Association and the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers, known as ASCAP. An. (Jacquelyn Martin/AP) Article [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. He asserted she could not be a U.S. citizen by birth despite being born in Oakland, California, if neither of her parents was a permanent resident at the time of her birth. 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 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." Any discipline such as suspension or disbarring then has to be approved by the California Supreme Court. Eastman first emerged as a Trump-affiliated lawyer in December 2020, when he filed a brief asking the Supreme Court to let Trump intervene in a longshot lawsuit to toss out election results in. Eastman responded that "Mike Pence is an establishment guy" who fears that Trump is "destroying the inside-the-Beltway Republican Party. The 61-year-old lawyer's rsum features some of the top credentials of the conservative legal movement: clerkships with former Judge Michael Luttig and Justice Clarence Thomas, the chairmanship. 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. According to the warrant, the phone was to be taken to a forensic lab of the Department of Justices Office of Inspector General. As the president's actual attorneys backed away from his coup, Eastman rushed in to . And Eastman wasn't the only one of Trump's legal henchman who knew the plan wasn't legally viable. [45][46][47] He sits on the board of advisors of St. Monica Academy[48] and the advisory board of the St. Thomas More Law Society of Orange County. But of all of them, the lawyers were most closely associated with Mr. McCartney, whom Mr. Eastman represented for more than 50 years. Eastman . John Eastman, the Trump-allied lawyer who wrote memos urging then-Vice President Mike Pence to overturn the 2020 election results, said in a court filing Monday that federal agents seized his. Lawyer John Eastman had claimed the situation had turned him into a "pseudo . Eastman and President Trump launched a campaign to overturn a democratic election, an action unprecedented in American history, Carter wrote in a March ruling. 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. Have a tip we should know? [121] On January 26, 2023, Eastman was charged with multiple disciplinary counts by the State Bar of California. 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. As the House January 6 panel unpacks the results of its months-long probe, lawmakers are expected to spend part of their Thursday hearing examining the role of John Eastman, a once-obscure legal scholar who vaulted into former President Donald Trumps inner circle ahead of the Capitol riot by pushing dubious legal strategies to keep Trump in office. 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., Eastmans interest in the election didnt seem to evaporate after the January 6 riot. [106], On June 7, Carter ruled that Eastman must disclose an additional 159 sensitive documents to the committee. [39][40] He is chairman of the board of the National Organization for Marriage, which opposes same-sex marriage. Eastman wasnt shy about his beliefs: He spoke at a Trump rally near the White House just hours before the January 6 riot, telling a crowd of Trump supporters we know there was fraud and election officials had ignored or violated state law, while he stood alongside Rudy Giuliani (Eastman has argued the rally, unlike the riot, was peaceful). Eastman also grabbed Trumps attention ahead of the 2020 election, when he suggested in a Newsweek op-ed that Bidens then-running mate Kamala Harris might not be eligible for the vice presidency because its unclear what immigration status her parents held when she was born in California. "[54] One day after publishing Eastman's op-ed, Newsweek published an opinion piece by legal scholar Eugene Volokh, titled "Yes, Kamala Harris is Eligible to be Vice President", in which Volokh argues that Harris is a "natural-born citizen" under the U.S. Constitution and is therefore eligible to be vice president. Trump did not issue a pardon to Eastman. A state bar courthas to rule on the charges Eastman faces and then recommend a discipline if they rule against him. Eastman is the author of the so-called coup memo, a six-point plan to overturn the election results. "John was a great man," McCartney wrote in an Instagram post announcing Eastman's death. Rather, the op-ed focused on the "long-standing, somewhat arcane legal debate about the precise meaning of the phrase 'subject to the jurisdiction thereof' in the Citizenship Clause of the 14th Amendment", also known as the jus sanguinis or jus soli debate. Trump lawyer John Eastman facing probe by California state bar | Reuters Newsletter | Sent every weekday. 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. 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. The Supreme Court has held this since the 1890s. 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. 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. [91] Black Lives Matter Utah had for months disassociated itself from Sullivan on concerns he might be associated with the Proud Boys. 6." Exhibit N", "How Pence used 43 words to shut down Trump allies' election subversion on Jan. 6", "Chapman professor will retire after uproar over his speaking at Trump rally", "Law Prof Who Spoke at White House Rally Abruptly Retires Amid Calls for His Firing", "Federal Judge Finds Trump Most Likely Committed Crimes Over 2020 Election", "Judge: 'More likely than not' that Trump 'corruptly attempted' to block Congress from counting votes on January 6", "Jan. 6 committee sends DOJ historic criminal referral of Trump over Capitol riot", "The University of Chicago Law Review Volume 62 Masthead", "California's 34th Congressional District", "Dean John Eastman On The Powers Of The Senate Vis--vis The SCOTUS Vacancy", "Search - Supreme Court of the United States", United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, "Challengers Find the Road to Congress Is Uphill Struggle: Elections", "Eastman resigns as Dean of the Chapman University School of Law", "2 AG hopefuls from O.C. Eastman is accused of making false and misleading statements regarding alleged election fraud including claims he made at a rally at the Ellipse outside the White House that preceded the deadly riot at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. Lee Eastman died in 1991, and Linda McCartney died in 1998. [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." [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. [56], This op-ed was cited by the New York Times as helping Eastman come to the attention of Jenna Ellis, a Trump campaign adviser. The bar review of John Eastman's conduct in the run-up to and aftermath of the Jan. 6 insurrection has begun, and how the case unfolds is uncertain. The Beatles' Sir Paul McCartney recently took to his Instagram to mourn the death of his brother-in-law, John Eastman, who was also his lawyer. [2] [3] He is a former professor and dean at the Chapman University School of Law. We've received your submission. ", "Here's Kamala Harris' birth certificate. The California bar directly connects Eastmans speech to the insurrection, saying he contributed to provoking a crowd to assault and breach the Capitol to intimidate then-Vice President [Mike] Pence and prevent the electoral count from proceeding., New York University law school professor and legal ethic expert Stephen Gillers termed the accusations against Eastman, "scathing," and that the Bar was charging him with failure to support the country's and California's constitutions, despite taking an oath to do so and, "The allegation that Eastman is guilty of 'moral turpitude'," is an attack on his personal and professional character. [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. Kowalke and NJP lawyer Goriune Dudukgian argued Eastman's lifetime membership in the far-right group made him disloyal and therefore ineligible to hold office in Alaska under the state . 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. But the committee argued Eastman's use of university email destroyed any attorney-client privilege to keep the documents confidential. 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.
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