Ex-Trump Lawyer John Eastman Gets Bad News in Court

A California judge has recommended that John Eastman, former lawyer for ex-president Donald Trump, lose his law license over accusations that Eastman attempted to help overturn the outcome of the 2020 presidential election.

Eastman, former dean of Chapman University School of Law, is facing 11 misconduct charges from the State Bar of California, accused of pushing to keep Trump in power by “executing a strategy, unsupported by facts or law, to overturn the legitimate results of the 2020 presidential election by obstructing the count of electoral votes of certain states.”

State Bar Court of California Judge Yvette Roland recommended on Wednesday that the conservative lawyer be banned from practicing law in the Golden State. Roland’s decision does not automatically disbar Eastman, with a ruling from the California Supreme Court being the next step in the process. Eastman would still be able to appeal if the state’s high court concurs with Roland.

Eastman’s lawyer, Randall Miller, said in a statement emailed to Newsweek, “Dr. Eastman maintains that his handling of the legal issues he was asked to assess after the November 2020 election was based on reliable legal precedent, prior presidential elections, research of constitutional text, and extensive scholarly material.”

“The process undertaken by Dr. Eastman in 2020 is the same process taken by lawyers every day and everywhere—indeed, that is the essence of what lawyers do,” the statement continues. “They are ethically bound to be zealous advocates for their clients—a duty Dr. Eastman holds inviolate. To the extent today’s decision curtails that principle, we are confident the Review Court will swiftly provide a remedy.”

In a release shortly after Roland’s recommendation, the state bar said that Eastman had been placed on “involuntary inactive status and cannot practice law in California while the Supreme Court considers the case.”

Eastman, who is also facing criminal charges alongside Trump in the Georgia election subversion case, reportedly came to the attention of the former president just after the 2020 election while making a series of conservative cable news appearances where he argued in favor of rejecting Electoral College votes from states won by then-future President Joe Biden.

Eastman is accused of being a key figure in a plot to overturn the election by using slates of fake electors in states where Trump lost. Eastman denies all wrongdoing and has defended his post-2020 election activities as part of a “fundamental First Amendment right to petition the government for redress of grievances.”

The statement sent to Newsweek by Eastman’s counsel describes the attempt to disbar Eastman as an “unfair” attempt to hurt his criminal defense in Georgia, reasoning that revoking the law license would not be “justice” and “serves no legitimate purpose to protect the public.”

“Any reasonable person can see the inherent unfairness of prohibiting a presumed-innocent defendant from being able to earn the funds needed to pay for the enormous expenses required to defend himself, in the profession in which he has long been licensed,” the statement reads.

George Cardona, state bar chief trial counsel, said in a statement that Eastman had “abandoned his ethical and legal duties as an attorney” by helping “to develop and implement a strategy to obstruct the counting of electoral votes on January 6, 2021, and illegally disrupt the peaceful transfer of power to President-elect Joseph Biden.”

Cardona argued that Eastman had done so while “knowing that there was no good faith theory or argument to lawfully reject the electoral votes of any state or delay the January 6 electoral count,” concluding that “the harm caused by Mr. Eastman’s abandonment of his duties as a lawyer, and the threat his actions posed to our democracy, more than warrant his disbarment.”

In a closing brief filed in December, the State Bar of California maintained that Eastman had struck “at the very heart of what it means to be a lawyer,” alleging that “he misused his license in a grave and injurious manner designed to undermine our democracy.”

“[Eastman] engaged in multiple acts of wrongdoing in an effort to keep his client, Trump, in power despite having lost the 2020 election,” the bar’s brief states. “[He] contributed to the violent attack on the Capitol on January 6, 2021, eroded without basis public trust in our government institutions and officials, and sought to disenfranchise millions of voters.”

“Respondent remains brazenly remorseless for his actions and has made clear that he would continue to engage in the same misconduct if allowed,” it continues. “The only appropriate outcome is disbarment.”