LOS ANGELES
Conservative attorney John Eastman, a lead mastermind of some of former President Donald Trump’s sweats to remain in power after the 2020 election, was slighted Thursday with a series of correctional charges in California that could lead to his disbarment.
The State Bar of California’s principal trial counsel, George Cardona, said in a statement that the 11 charges stem from allegations that Eastman supported Trump with a strategy — not supported by data — to capsize the licit results of the 2020 election by gumming the count of electoral votes of certain countries.
The office intends to seek Eastman’s disbarment.
Eastman, the former doyen of Chapman University law academy in Southern California, was one of Trump’s attorneys during the election. He wrote a memo that argued former Vice President Mike Pence could keep Trump in power by capsizing the results of the election during a common session of Congress convened to count electoral votes. Critics have likened that to instructions for carrying an achievement.
The State Bar said Eastman faces charges that he violated the business and professions, law by making false and deceiving statements that constitute acts of “ moral turpitude, deceitfulness, and corruption. ”
Eastman controversies “ every aspect ” of the charges filed by the State Bar, which are grounded on his part as counsel to the former chairman after the election, his attorney, Randall. Miller said in a statement.
The State Bar’s action “ is part of civil trouble to use the bar discipline process to correct attorneys who opposed the current administration in the last presidential election. Americans of both political parties should be troubled by this politicization of our nation’s state bars, ” Miller’s statement said.
In advising Trump, “ Eastman’s assessments were the product of comprehensive exploration of the law and literal records including the 12th Amendment and Electoral Count Act — supported by reasonable interpretation of legal and literal precedent, scholarly analysis, and legislative history, ” Miller added.
“ He was a counsel, not Rasputin, ” Miller said.
The bar bared in March that it was probing Eastman for possible ethics violations.
As the State Bar’s principal trial counsel, Cardona investigates and prosecutes attorney correctional matters before the State Bar Court, which can recommend attorneys be either suspended or, in some cases, lose their licenses to exercise law. The California Supreme Court eventually decides what to do.
Eastman has been a member of the California Bar since 1997, according to its website. He was a law clerk for U.S. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas and a founding director of the Center for Indigenous Justice, a law establishment combined with the Claremont Institute. He ran for California attorney general in 2010, finishing second in the Democratic primary.
Eastman retired as a doyen of the Chapman University law academy last time after further than 160 faculty members inked a letter calling for the university to take action against him.
In his statement, Cardona said the charges purport that Eastman “ violated this duty in the headway of an attempt to convert the will of the American people and capsize election results for the loftiest office in the land- an obvious and unknown attack on our republic.
