The California State Bar Court has found Professor John Eastman, a former legal adviser to Donald Trump, preliminarily culpable of 11 charges related to advice he gave the former president on the 2020 election, and the steps he could take to dispute the result.
Eastman was accused of counts including “failure to support the Constitution and laws of the United States” and “moral turpitude” for advising President Trump that Vice President Mike Pence could, in his role as President of the Senate, decline to certify the 2020 election results in states where fraud was suspected, handing them back to their legislatures for further examination.
The State Bar of California moved to strip Eastman of his law license for these supposed offenses, and Judge Yvette Roland has issued “a preliminary finding of culpability,” with the hearing now considering supposedly aggravating factors in his actions.
The State Bar says it “intends to submit evidence of harm flowing from false claims that 2020 presidential election was ‘stolen’ and effected by outcome-determinative fraud, including harassment of specific election officials and undermined public trust in election results and the legitimacy of democratic institutions.”
Eastman, for his part, insists the proceedings against him undermine both his First Amendment rights and attorney-client privilege. He also says the evidence the Bar has presented has only strengthened his belief that changes to the conduct of the 2020 election were made without the necessary legislative approval, and the resulting “illegality opened the door to fraud”.
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