Attorney who advised Trump on overturning election is charged with ethics violations.
The State Bar of California filed disciplinary charges Thursday against Orange County attorney John Eastman, accusing him of multiple ethics violations stemming from his actions while advising then-President Trump on how to overturn the 2020 election.
The charges could be the first step to Eastman losing his California law license.
Eastman, a former professor and dean at Chapman University’s Fowler School of Law, emerged as a key legal advisor to Trump in the weeks after Joe Biden won the presidency.
Eastman helped develop a legal and political strategy promoting the false claim that the results were tainted by fraud and misconduct by election officials, according to a 35-page charging document filed by the State Bar.
In the months that followed, the U.S. attorney general and others told the Trump campaign that there was no evidence of widespread fraud that could have affected the outcome of the election. Dozens of courts dismissed cases alleging fraud.
Still, the State Bar alleges, Eastman continued to work with Trump to promote the lie of a stolen election.
Eastman must be held accountable for his role in “an egregious and unprecedented attack on our democracy,” George Cardona, the State Bar’s chief trial counsel, said in a statement.
An attorney’s highest duty is abiding by the federal and state constitutions, and Eastman violated that duty, Cardona wrote.
The 11 disciplinary charges against Eastman include failure to support the Constitution and laws of the United States, misrepresentation, seeking to mislead a court, and making false and misleading statements that constitute acts of “moral turpitude, dishonesty and corruption.”
State Bar officials said they intend to seek Eastman’s disbarment before the State Bar Court.
In a Substack post, Eastman said the State Bar filing is “filled with distortions, half-truths and outright falsehoods.” In the post, which seeks funds for his legal defense, he also asks for prayers.
Eastman’s attorney, Randall A. Miller, said in a statement that his client “disputes every aspect of the action that has been filed against him by the State Bar.”
“The complaint filed against Eastman that triggered today’s action by the State Bar is part of a nationwide effort to use the bar discipline process to penalize attorneys who opposed the current administration in the last presidential election,” the statement said. “Americans of both political parties should be troubled by this politicization of our nation’s state bars.”
The State Bar alleges that Eastman wrote legal memos — one in December 2020 and another on Jan. 3, 2021 — advising Vice President Mike Pence that he could declare that election results in seven states were in dispute.
This would have led to electoral votes going uncounted and could have opened the door for Trump to remain president.
In the second memo, Eastman asserted that the “election was tainted by outright fraud (both traditional ballot stuffing and electronic manipulation of voting tabulation machines),” according to the state bar filing.
Eastman knew or should have known that the assertion was “false and misleading,” the State Bar filing said.
In a speech to tens of thousands of Trump supporters at the National Mall in Washington, D.C., on Jan. 6, Eastman said that “dead people had voted” and that electronic voting machines made by the Dominion company had altered the election results.
Eastman’s comments constituted an “act of moral turpitude, dishonesty and corruption,” were “false and misleading” and helped provoke the crowd to attack the Capitol, the filing said.
Eastman has a long history in California’s conservative legal circles.
He was hired by Chapman’s law school in 1999 and was dean from June 2007 to January 2010, then continued to teach courses in constitutional law, property law, legal history and the 1st Amendment.
He retired in early 2021 after more than 100 Chapman faculty and others affiliated with the university signed a letter calling on the school to take action against him for his role in the Jan. 6 insurrection.
Thursday’s charges are the result of a lengthy investigation into Eastman’s actions that began in 2021.
In October of that year, the nonpartisan legal group States United Democracy Center filed an ethics complaint calling on the State Bar to investigate Eastman’s Jan. 6 actions.
Christine P. Sun, a senior vice president at the States United Democracy Center, said in a statement Thursday that Eastman “abused the legal system and violated the oath he swore as an attorney, in an attempt to block the will of the people and prevent the peaceful transfer of power.”
The level of detail included in the filing indicates that the State Bar is taking the allegations against Eastman seriously, said UC Berkeley Law Dean Erwin Chemerinsky.
Like all other charges against Trump, this one will be used as a media blitz to continue the brain washing of those who feel America is on the right track with Biden, et al. In the end it will be proven wrong or, as with the documents, will be shut up when it is found that the liberals have done much more on a greater illegal level.The sad thing is the use of a quite demented man to be their show person and keeping the controllers out of sight. We need strong leadership – there are highly qualified Republican candidates – and few, if any, highly qualified Democrat candidates.
Yes,there are highly qualified Republican candidates. However,with people like cocaine Mitch and Ronna Romney in charge of the campaign money the Democrats may never lose another election for the foreseeable future. It looks like they have bribed enough people they will be in charge for that foreseeable future so All we can do is vote and spread the word of their treachery.
Excuse me!! Esstman is a wonderful person excellent lawyer and great patriot of drcades. Loved and well know in OC.
But yes he as many others is the unfortunate example meant to frighten Americans not to stand up snd speak what they believe.
The Ca bar is dominated by leftist Democrats. This isn’t about ethics,it’s about politics. They will demonize,harass and cancel anyone standing for the constitution,liberty and freedom. The one who stood for those principles was DJ Trump. These Dems stand for tyranny and one party (their party) rule and will do everything in their power to keep their grip on this country. They are the ones with an ethics problem. Their obsession with power is centered in the fact that they are morally bankrupt and ethics are thrown out the window. They will destroy anyone supporting our rightful POTUS. This move is proof of their total lack of morality and ruthlessness in keeping their iron fisted grip on the state.
“a legal and political strategy promoting the false claim that the results were tainted by fraud and misconduct by election officials”
My, my, I’m surprised he hasn’t enjoyed one of those dark-of-night raids with CNN cameras on the scene.
And how ’bout that ole “false claim” story? Still holding water? Maybe where CA-style mob rule persists, but drying up as freedom raises its head again elsewhere.
p.s. Anyone ever associated with DJT or advising him better hunker down for awhile.
Fortunately Mr Eastman has a long career filled with ethical actions, his faith, and his retirement. He doesn’t need his license, proving this is purely political.
Thank for making that perfectly clear CBA.
Where was this concerned group when our Attorney General turned up completely unprepared to defend the people’s will – AKA prop 8?
Ethics violations in CA??? You’ve got to be kidding!!! John Eastman is a distraction. CA is a cesspool of corrupt officials, and john Eastman is not one of them, thank God.
January 28, 2023 By Stephen Hobbs Leave a Comment
The former executive officer of the California Air Resources Board received almost $500,000 in added pay last year — the vast majority for unused leave — when he left the agency. That additional money helped Richard Corey more than triple his total compensation from the previous year, according to data The Sacramento Bee acquired from the State Controller’s Office. Corey worked 37 years for the board, called CARB, and was appointed executive officer in 2013. He “accrued considerable vacation, personal leave and holiday time,” agency communications official David Clergen said in an email. In 2022, he took home $623,238.
The State Bar is no longer run by attorneys but by left wing political hacks. Professionalism is gone. Belief in the Constitution is likewise gone. I’d like to know who the idiot Christine P. Sun is. She and others of her ilk are completely devoid of knowledge of the Constitution and the cases that have interpreted it. The crap (the correct legal term for it) that they are pulling on John Eastman is unconstitutional and an abject lie. They are a bunch of liars. Look at that fool Newsom and know that the leadership of the State Bar–not the California Lawyers Association–reflects his perverted views of ethics.
Chapman College needs to differentiate individual faculty member opinions from its policies and decisions. David Horowitz’ book, Indoctrination U, is an excellent source for clarifications on the various points of academic freedom.