Global InformationJohn Eastman information
John Eastman | |
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 Eastman in 2010 | |
| Born | John Charles Eastman 1960 (age 63–64) Lincoln, Nebraska, U.S. |
| Education | University of Dallas (BA) Claremont Graduate School (PhD) University of Chicago (JD) |
| Occupations |
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| Political party | Republican |
John Charles Eastman (born 1960)[1] is an American lawyer and academic who has been criminally indicted[2] and recommended for disbarment[3] for attempting to keep then-president Donald Trump in office and obstruct the certification of Joe Biden's victory in the 2020 United States presidential election. Eastman has lost eligibility to practice law in California state courts, pending his appeal of the state bar judge's ruling that recommended him for disbarment.[4][5][6] Eastman is also a co-conspirator in the federal indictment brought against Trump over his attempts to subvert the 2020 election results and prevent the certification of Biden’s election.[7]
Eastman is the founding director of the Center for Constitutional Jurisprudence, a public-interest law firm affiliated with the Claremont Institute, a conservative think tank.[8][9] He is a former professor and former dean at Chapman University School of Law.[10] He ran unsuccessfully as a Republican for California's 34th congressional district in 1990, and for California Attorney General in 2010.[8][11] He is a former law clerk to Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas.
Eastman's alleged role in attempting to keep Trump in office includes pressuring Vice President Mike Pence to reject the votes of electors from crucial swing states that Joe Biden won. Eastman is believed to be one of the six alleged co-conspirators listed in the Justice Department’s federal indictment of Trump.[12]
Eastman wrote a controversial op-ed in August 2020 that falsely suggested the then-presumed Democratic nominee for U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris was not a "natural-born citizen" within the meaning of Article II of the Constitution and thus ineligible for the position.[13][14][15]
Eastman was a key participant in the subsequent attempts to overturn the election;[16][17][18][19] during President Donald Trump's last efforts before the certification of Joe Biden's Electoral College victory, Eastman told Vice President Mike Pence in an Oval Office meeting, on January 5, 2021, that Pence had the constitutional authority to block the certification.[20][21] Pence did not accept Eastman's argument. Eastman also sent 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.[22]
On January 6, 2021, Eastman gave a speech at the White House Trump rally that preceded the 2021 United States Capitol attack. Later that day, after rioters had attacked the Capitol, Eastman e-mailed Greg Jacob, counsel to Vice President Pence, and implored him to violate the Electoral Count Act by delaying certification of the election.[23] Jacob responded by calling Eastman's arguments "bullshit" and calling Eastman a "serpent in the ear of the president".[24][25] On January 13, 2021, Eastman retired from the Chapman faculty after the controversy created by his speech at the Trump rally.[26][27] 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".[28][29] 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.[30] Eastman is suspected of being a co-conspirator in the August 1, 2023, indictment of Trump for conspiring to defraud the United States, conspiring to disenfranchise voters, and conspiring and attempting to obstruct an official proceeding.[31] On August 14, 2023, he was indicted along with eighteen other people in the prosecution related to the 2020 election in Georgia; he surrendered the following week and was booked into the Fulton County jail.[32][33] He has since appeared on Fox News and other right-wing networks to declare his innocence.
- ^ Buncombe, Andrew (June 16, 2022). "Who is 'Coup Memo' author John Eastman and what role did he play in pushing Trump's plan to derail democracy?". Yahoo! News. Retrieved June 16, 2022.
- ^ Brumback, Kate (August 23, 2023). "Attorney John Eastman surrenders on charges in Trump's Georgia 2020 election subversion case". AP News. Retrieved April 4, 2024.
- ^ "License Status, Disciplinary and Administrative History". Retrieved April 2, 2024.
- ^ "Attorney Profile: John Charles Eastman #193726". Retrieved April 2, 2024.
- ^ Culliton, Kathleen. "John Eastman's law license yanked in California after judge recommends disbarment: report".
- ^ "Another One Bites the Dust: Trump 2020 Lawyer Officially Disbarred". The New Republic. April 4, 2024.
John Eastman can no longer practice law.
- ^ Cohen, Marshall (August 1, 2023). "Who are the Trump co-conspirators in the 2020 election interference indictment?". cnn.com. Retrieved April 4, 2024.
- ^ a b "Dr. John Eastman". Faculty Profile. Chapman University. Archived from the original on December 10, 2020. Retrieved January 10, 2021.
- ^ "John C. Eastman". Conference on World Affairs. November 28, 2018. Retrieved January 14, 2021.
- ^ Sani, Jasmin (December 10, 2020). "'This is not who we are': Chapman law professor represents Trump in Supreme Court". The Panther Newspaper.
- ^ "John Eastman for Attorney General". eastmanforag.com. Archived from the original on August 1, 2010. Retrieved June 22, 2022.
- ^ Stabley, Justin (September 21, 2023). "What you need to know about John Eastman's 2020 election charges". PBS News Hour. PBS. Retrieved March 4, 2024.
- ^ DeBolt, David (August 18, 2020). "Here's Kamala Harris' birth certificate. Scholars say there's no VP eligibility debate". The Mercury News. Retrieved November 4, 2020.
Legal experts say her eligibility was never up for debate, but they reluctantly weighed in after conservative attorney John C. Eastman published an opinion piece in Newsweek sowing doubt because Harris' parents were immigrants. He used a widely discredited legal argument that the U.S. Constitution doesn't grant birthright citizenship.
- ^ Stern, Mark Joseph (August 14, 2020). "The White Supremacist "Scholars" Pushing the Kamala Harris Birther Lie". Slate. Retrieved November 4, 2020.
- ^ "Newsweek apologizes for op-ed questioning Harris eligibility". Associated Press. August 15, 2020. Retrieved November 4, 2020.
- ^ Alemany, Jacqueline; Brown, Emma; Hamburger, Tom; Swaine, Jon (October 23, 2021). "Ahead of Jan. 6, Willard hotel in downtown D.C. was a Trump team 'command center' for effort to deny Biden the presidency". The Washington Post. ISSN 0190-8286. Retrieved October 24, 2021.
- ^ Dawsey, Josh; Alemany, Jacqueline; Swaine, Jon; Brown, Emma (October 29, 2021). "During Jan. 6 riot, Trump attorney told Pence team the vice president's inaction caused attack on Capitol". The Washington Post. Retrieved October 30, 2021.
- ^ Kaczynski, Andrew; Steck, Em (October 30, 2021). "Trump lawyer John Eastman said 'courage and the spine' would help Pence send election to the House in comments before January 6". CNN. Retrieved October 30, 2021.
- ^ Broadwater, Luke (October 30, 2021). "Trump Lawyer Blamed Pence for Violence as Rioters Stormed Capitol - John Eastman, the author of a memo that some in both parties liken to a blueprint for a coup, sent a hostile email to the vice president's chief counsel as the mob attacked". The New York Times. Retrieved October 31, 2021.
- ^ Stracqualursi, Veronica (October 30, 2021). "Washington Post: Trump lawyer John Eastman blamed Pence for January 6 violence by refusing to block 2020 election certification". The Washington Post. Retrieved October 30, 2021 – via CNN.
- ^ Blake, Aaron (October 30, 2021). "The most shocking new revelation about John Eastman - He and Trump were not just pressing forward despite the mob; they apparently were trying to leverage it". The Washington Post. Retrieved October 30, 2021.
- ^ Gangel, Jamie; Herb, Jeremy (September 20, 2021). "Memo shows Trump lawyer's six-step plan for Pence to overturn the election". CNN. Retrieved September 20, 2021.
- ^ "United States District Court Central District of California Southern Division John C. Eastman Plaintiff, vs. Bennie G. Thompson, et al., Defendants. Exhibit N" (PDF). March 2, 2022. Retrieved March 8, 2022.
- ^ Cillizza, Chris (March 3, 2022). "The single most damning email exchange in the new January 6 committee filing". CNN. Retrieved September 3, 2023.
- ^ Cheney, Kyle (March 11, 2022). "How Pence used 43 words to shut down Trump allies' election subversion on Jan. 6". Politico. Retrieved June 9, 2022.
When Pence refused to entertain the alternate electors during Congress' session certifying Biden as the next president, Trump supporters encroaching on the Capitol became furious. Within an hour, hundreds had breached the building, with some chanting 'hang Mike Pence.' ... Amid the chaos, Eastman exchanged tense emails with Jacob. Pence's counsel accused Eastman, in one remarkably blunt missive, of being 'a serpent in the ear of the president of the United States.'
- ^ Agrawal, Nina; Ormsmeth, Matthew (January 14, 2021). "Chapman professor will retire after uproar over his speaking at Trump rally". Los Angeles Times.
- ^ Sloan, Karen (January 14, 2021). "Law Prof Who Spoke at White House Rally Abruptly Retires Amid Calls for His Firing". Law.com. Retrieved January 16, 2021.
- ^ Broadwater, Luke; Feuer, Alan; Haberman, Maggie (March 28, 2022). "Federal Judge Finds Trump Most Likely Committed Crimes Over 2020 Election". The New York Times. Retrieved May 23, 2022.
- ^ Polantz, Katelyn (March 22, 2022). "Judge: 'More likely than not' that Trump 'corruptly attempted' to block Congress from counting votes on January 6". CNN. Retrieved March 22, 2022.
- ^ Mangan, Dan; Wilkie, Christina (December 19, 2022). "Jan. 6 committee sends DOJ historic criminal referral of Trump over Capitol riot". CNBC. Retrieved December 19, 2022.
- ^ Cohen, Marshall (August 2, 2023). "Who are the Trump con-conspirators in the 2020 election interference indictment?". NBC. Retrieved August 2, 2023.
- ^ Cole, Devan; Murray, Sara; Morris, Jason; Cohen, Marshall (August 14, 2023). "Here are the names and titles of all 19 people charged in Georgia case". CNN. Retrieved August 14, 2023.
- ^ "Attorney John Eastman surrenders to authorities on charges in Georgia 2020 election subversion case". AP News. August 22, 2023. Retrieved August 22, 2023.