Paul McCartney took to social media to pay respects to his brother-in-law John Eastman, who passed away from pancreatic cancer on Tuesday at age 83. The lawyer also repped Trump, 76, in a Supreme Court case seeking to overturn the election results in four states where Trump alleged there d been voter fraud. "[107], On June 15, 2022, the Washington Post reported that the January 6 committee had recently acquired emails between Eastman and Ginni Thomas, wife of Supreme Court justice Clarence Thomas,[108] and the New York Times reported that the committee had obtained the EastmanChesebro email exchange from December 24, 2020. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene's campaign paid John Eastman in January for unspecified "legal services." The payment was made to Constitutional Counsel Group, a firm founded by the Trump lawyer.. [55] Lorelei Laird, in an Above The Law article, pointed out that Eastman was arguing that Harris was not even a U.S. A private Facebook group named "FrontLiners for Liberty," which included over 50 people and was created in August 2020, showed Thomas as an administrator. They stated there was no connection between the op-ed and the birther movement. Lawyer John Eastman has been hit with disciplinary charges and should be disbarred for his alleged involvement in former President Donald Trumps bid to throw out the 2020 election results, according to the California State Bar. At Wikipedia, don't even ask. [97], As Eastman sought to withhold some emails, in March 2022 the committee continued to seek them, stating in a federal court filing that the evidence it had acquired "provides, at minimum, a good-faith basis for concluding" Trump and his campaign violated multiple laws in a criminal conspiracy to defraud the United States by attempting to prevent Congress from certifying his defeat. [26], Eastman served as an attorney for the State of South Dakota, representing it in a denied petition to the U.S. Supreme Court in a constitutional challenge to federal spending. [103][104], In May 2022, the University of Colorado, where Eastman was a visiting professor, released an email Eastman sent to Pennsylvania legislator Russ Diamond in December 2020. His brother-in-law Paul McCartney his sister Linda Eastman was Mr. McCartneys first wife was a client for more than 50 years. In 2017, Mr. Eastman steered a lawsuit by Mr. McCartney against Sony/ATV, the music publisher (now known as Sony Music Publishing), to regain his share of the United States copyrights in Beatles songs that he wrote with Mr. Lennon, citing an amendment to federal law that allows creators to recapture those rights after set periods. Trump lawyer John Eastman takes Fifth at Georgia grand jury But the committee argued Eastman's use of university email destroyed any attorney-client privilege to keep the documents confidential. Last week, Carter ruled 440 records were privileged but ordered Eastman to hand over another 159. [109], Days after it became known Eastman and Thomas had communicated by email, Eastman posted on his new Substack blog one email that he captioned, "OMG, Mrs. Thomas asked me to give an update about election litigation to her group. 'Coup Memo' Lawyer Loses Bid To Hold Up Records He Warns - HuffPost John Eastman's and Greg Jacob's tense email exchange, annotated - The Eastman's brief included an array of unfounded claims and asserted "It is not necessary for [Trump] to prove that fraud occurred," and asserted it was enough to show that elections "materially deviated" from the intent of state lawmakers, adding, "By failing to follow the rule of law, these officials put our nation's belief in elected self-government at risk. John L. Eastman, McCartneys Lawyer in Beatles Strife, Dies at 83, https://www.nytimes.com/2022/08/15/arts/music/john-l-eastman-dead.html. On June 27, Eastman asked a federal judge to compel the government to return his phone and destroy its records of the phone's contents. Who Is John Eastman? The Attorney At The Center Of Trump's - Forbes He is the host of Law&Crime podcast "Objections: with Adam Klasfeld.". And Eastman wasn't the only one of Trump's legal henchman who knew the plan wasn't legally viable. Donald Trump appears to have committed multiple felonies as he sought to return himself to power on 6 January, a judge said in a Monday ruling that ordered the Trump lawyer John Eastman to. After Thursday's hearing John Eastman should get a good criminal Washington A federal judge on Tuesday ordered John Eastman, a conservative lawyer who devised the legal strategy to keep former President Donald Trump in power after he lost the 2020 election . Early in their work with Mr. McCartney, the Eastmans helped him set up what would become MPL Communications, his entertainment company. [66] In a video taken secretly and made public that same month, Eastman suggested he believed that Pence's actions served Washington politics. The judge ordered the emails released to Eastman's legal team to identify which they asserted were privileged, before allowing a third party to scrutinize them. [56], This op-ed was cited by the New York Times as helping Eastman come to the attention of Jenna Ellis, a Trump campaign adviser. [122]. For the member of the Wisconsin State Senate, see, Legal strategies to reject electoral votes, Actions during the January 6th attack on the Capitol, United States House Select Committee on the January 6 Attack, United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit, 2010 California Attorney General election, challenge the results of the 2020 United States presidential election, Attempts to overturn the 2020 United States presidential election, 2021 storming of the United States Capitol, crime-fraud exception to the attorney-client privilege, List of law clerks of the Supreme Court of the United States (Seat 10), "Who is 'Coup Memo' author John Eastman and what role did he play in pushing Trump's plan to derail democracy? After CNBC asked Thomas about the group, its public pages were either made private or deleted. Judge calls 'illegality' of Trump plan to overturn election 'obvious' But of all of them, the lawyers were most closely associated with Mr. McCartney, whom Mr. Eastman represented for more than 50 years. The court had already rejected a major election challenge, Texas v. Pennsylvania, 13 days earlier, and the participants in Eastman's email exchange were discussing whether to file papers in the hopes that four U.S. Supreme Court justices would agree to hear a Wisconsin case. Stephen K. Bannon welcomed Conservative attorney, legal scholar, and professor of law John Eastman on Monday's War Room: Pandemic to explain his attorney's letter to Congress citing the illegitimacy of his subpoena regarding the January 6 committee hearings. "[21][102], Seventeen months after the election, Eastman continued to press state legislatures to "de-certify" their election results. (Photo by MANDEL NGAN/AFP via Getty Images). Who is John Eastman, the Trump lawyer at the center of the Jan. 6 State Bar Announces John Eastman Ethics Investigation - The State Bar A former clerk to Associate Justice Clarence Thomas, Eastman helms the Center for. [79][80][81][82], During the Capitol storming, when Pence was forced into hiding, Eastman exchanged e-mails with Greg Jacob, Pence's chief counsel. UpdateJan. The article was harshly criticized as both a bizarre reading of constitutional law and a possible wink to the birther conspiracy theory, which falsely contended former President Barack Obama wasnt born in the United States. The State Bar of California unveiled new disciplinary charges against John Eastman for his involvement in former President Donald Trump's efforts to block th. As part of their preparations for the case, Mr. Eastman suggested that his brother-in-law wear a suit and tie to court. Eastman . Stop the Presses!" "[53] Harvard Professor Laurence Tribe was similarly dismissive, telling The New York Times "I hadnt wanted to comment on [Eastmans idea] because it's such an idiotic theory. ", "John Eastman, who pushed a plan to reject Electoral College results, asked for a pardon shortly after Jan. 6", "Eastman sought White House pardon after Jan. 6", "Ex-Law Professor Says His Words at 'Save America' Rally Did Not Incite U.S. Capitol Siege", "Trump lawyer John Eastman: Rally, insurrection not connected", "Rallies ahead of Capitol riot were planned by established Washington insiders", "F.B.I. The Bar's investigation, announced Tuesday, March 1, focuses on whether Eastman "engaged in conduct in violation of California law and ethics rules governing attorneys following and in . The Supreme Court has held this since the 1890s. Newsweek defended the column, while acknowledging that they were "horrified that this op-ed gave rise to a wave of vile Birtherism directed at Senator Harris". John Eastman, the Trump-allied lawyer who wrote memos urging then-Vice President Mike Pence to overturn the 2020 election results, said in a court filing Monday that federal agents seized his. [94] CNN reported Eastman met with the committee but invoked the Fifth Amendment 146 times. For California attorneys, adherence to the U.S. and California Constitutions is their highest legal duty. A federal judge in California previously found that Trump and Eastman more likely than not violated two felony statutes in their attempts to overturn the election: obstruction of an official proceeding and conspiracy to defraud the United States. He served on the faculty of Chapman University in California until last year, worked as dean of the universitys law school from 2007 to 2010 and is now a senior fellow at the Claremont Institute, a conservative think tank. Meanwhile, John Eastman, the law professor who developed the plan to challenge Joe Biden's electors on January 6, 2021, is fighting back against the Left's move to disbar him. [117], On October 4, 2021, a bipartisan group of attorneys, including two former federal judges and two former justices of the California Supreme Court, filed a complaint with the State Bar of California asking for an investigation of Eastman relating to "his representation of former President Donald J. Trump in efforts to discredit and overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election. Read the notice of the disciplinary charges below. Even after the insurrection, Eastman was still trying to overturn the election Even after Jan. 6, Eastman was still talking about the 2020 election not yet being certain. Lee Eastman died in 1991, and Linda McCartney died in 1998. A fed-up Herschmann claims he insisted that Eastman only talk about an orderly transition in the future, and encouraged Eastman to find a great fing criminal defense lawyeryoure going to need it.. The Notice of Disciplinary Charges alleges that Mr. Eastman violated this duty in furtherance of an attempt to usurp the will of the American people and overturn election results for the highest office in the land an egregious and unprecedented attack on our democracy for which he must be held accountable, Cardona said. Trump lawyer Herschmann testified that on the morning of Jan. 6 he received a call from. Eastman laid out this plan in a pair of January 2021 memos obtained by news outlets last year, and reportedly spoke with Pence and his team in the leadup to January 6 to win him overbut Pence and his advisors firmly rejected Eastmans argument. John Eastman on Thursday, April 29, 2021. A Federalist Society Star Helped Foment the Capitol Riot - Slate Magazine [23], In 1989, prior to attending law school, Eastman served as the director of Congressional and public affairs at the United States Commission on Civil Rights. [13][14] Pence did not accept Eastman's argument. In Memoriam: John Eastman '64 | NYU School of Law The entertainment lawyer John L. Eastman in 2011. Trump Lawyer John Eastman Literally Told A Lawmaker To Toss Absentee [63][64] The day of the Trump retweet, someone in the Trump administration called Eastman asking him to write a memo "asserting the vice president's power to hold up the certification" of the presidential election. To break Mr. Kleins grip over the band, and to secure Mr. McCartneys independence, Mr. Eastman masterminded a lawsuit, filed in London on Dec. 31, 1970, to dissolve the Beatles partnership agreement. As Trumps legal avenues to overturn his reelection loss grew thinner, Eastman offered up an unconventional strategy based on fringe legal theories: Eastman argued Vice President Mike Pencein his role as Senate presidentcould refuse to count some of Bidens electoral votes during the joint session of Congress on January 6, 2021. Eastman replied by blaming Pence and Jacob for refusing to block certification of Trump's loss in the election, writing, "The siege is because YOU and your boss did not do what was necessary to allow this to be aired in a public way so that the American people can see for themselves what happened." [105], In a late-night court filing on May 19, 2022, Eastman disclosed he had routinely communicated with Trump directly or via "six conduits" regarding legal strategy leading up to January 6, detailing "two hand-written notes from former President Trump about information that he thought might be useful for the anticipated litigation." 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Trump lawyer John Eastman's law license in California may be in jeopardy Chesebro responded: "the odds of action before Jan. 6 will become more favorable if the justices start to fear that there will be 'wild' chaos on Jan. 6 unless they rule by then, either way." Bar discipline is an instrument ill-suited to . John Eastman, a lawyer and fellow at a right-wing think tank, is now desperately downplaying the memos he wrote before January 6 laying out how then-Vice President Mike Pence could overturn the election and subvert the will of the American people. Aside from Mr. McCartney, they were best known for working with Mr. Joel in the late 1980s and early 90s, when he sued his former manager and lawyer. His mother had inherited a fortune from the Lindner department store in Cleveland. [90] Eastman referred to an "antifa and BLM guy" who had been arrested after the Capitol incursion, an apparent reference to John Earle Sullivan, a Utah man who some characterized as an "antifa leader" who had supposedly infiltrated the rally crowd to instigate the insurgency. Chesebro had emailed Rudy Giuliani 11 days earlier with a proposal for Pence to recuse himself from the January 6 certification so a senior Republican senator could count fraudulent elector slates to declare Trump the victor. John Eastman vs. the Eastman Memo | National Review Trump lawyers who fought election results saw Supreme Court Justice The plan called for legislators to express concern about absentee ballots to justify disqualifying tens of thousands of them, then using historical voting data to "discount each candidates' totals by a prorated amount" to arrive at a significant Trump lead. August 25, 2022 John Eastman, a prominent entertainment lawyer whose clients included the musicians Paul McCartney and Billy Joel, the Abstract Expressionist painter Willem de Kooning, and. Many fans offered condolences after reading Paul's heartfelt . John Eastman Retires From Chapman University - Forbes