John Eastman faces the music for trying to swing the 2020 election to Donald Trump | Opinion
Donald Trump’s desperate attempts to stay in power after he lost the 2020 election were designed and executed largely by his extensive entourage of lawyers. Appropriately, his personal lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, has already had his law license suspended by a New York court for the disgraceful role he played in Trump’s attempted coup.
Now, the California State Bar is pursuing a court trial seeking justice for another key player, Trump attorney John Eastman. He was the apparent architect of the unlawful plan to get then-Vice President Mike Pence to reject or delay the January 6 electoral certification in Congress of President Joe Biden’s election.
A former dean of the Chapman University Law School in Orange, California, Eastman wrote two infamous memos that outlined a step-by-step program to overturn the election, disenfranchise millions of voters and keep Trump in office.
But if not for Pence’s proper rejection of it, based on the sound legal advice of former judge and conservative icon Michael Luttig, who knows what might have happened?
The intent was to betray the Constitution and America’s 225-year-old tradition of the lawful transition of presidential power. Lawyers swear to uphold the Constitution, yet the bar’s pretrial brief points to Eastman having brazenly violated that oath. Our democracy was pushed to the brink, as bipartisan legal experts emphasized in two 2021 complaints against Eastman.
He first tried to persuade state legislators and the courts to toss election results based on false claims of fraud and misconduct. When that didn’t work, Eastman shamefully argued to Pence that, as presiding officer of the electoral count, he had unilateral power to disregard the votes of seven states won by Biden.
Tellingly, Eastman told a colleague that his legal theory wouldn’t hold up in court. And later, in Trump’s final days as president, he even floated himself for a pardon. As Pence later wrote, “this guy didn’t even believe what he was telling the president.”
A federal judge has already found it more likely than not that Eastman and Trump broke federal law by corruptly conspiring to obstruct the January 6 joint session of Congress that counted the electoral votes. The judge called the scheme “a coup in search of a legal theory.”
Earlier this year, the bar’s office of chief trial counsel brought the 11 disciplinary charges against Eastman that will now be tried. The charges include failing to support the Constitution and laws of the United States, along with false and misleading statements that constitute acts of “moral turpitude, dishonesty and corruption.”
That language is important. The California Supreme Court has repeatedly held that upholding honesty and good morals in the legal profession is vital to protecting the public. The bar’s briefing tells us that Eastman abandoned those responsibilities.
Eastman has argued that he was engaging in protected political speech. But the First Amendment provides no refuge for unlawful conduct just because speech is involved.
And this was not, as Eastman contends, simply a lawyer advocating for his client. As officers of the court, lawyers are ethically bound to advise their clients within the bounds of the law.
In Eastman’s trial, a state bar court will decide whether he committed professional misconduct. If so, they will recommend discipline.
The state Supreme Court has the ultimate authority to accept or reject any recommendation to suspend a bar license or disbar an attorney. Disbarring Eastman would send a clear message: Breach your professional responsibility as a lawyer, especially to undermine our democracy, and you will lose your license.
Disbarment would also serve the purpose of deterrence, helping to ensure that no future president has lawyers willing to do what Eastman tried after the 2020 election.
The state bar’s chief trial counsel said in announcing the charges that Eastman’s actions can be considered an “egregious and unprecedented attack on our democracy.” If the charges are proven, Eastman must be held responsible for it and never be allowed to practice law again.