November 03, 2023 01:30 PM UTC

CU Conservative Scholar Eastman One Step Closer To Disbarment

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• by: Colorado Pols

As Joyce Cutler reports for Bloomberg Law News, former University of Colorado Benson Center Visiting Conservative Scholar and currently retained attorney for the Colorado Republican Party John Eastman had another very bad career day, with a California State Bar Court judge issuing a preliminary ruling in the case seeking Eastman’s disbarment for his role in the 2020 presidential election coup plot that sets the stage for the pulling of Eastman’s license to practice law:

A California State Bar Court judge on Thursday preliminarily found Trump attorney John Eastman culpable in the 11-count trial on moral and legal violations for allegedly conspiring to invalidate the 2020 presidential election.

After 32 days of testimony, Judge Yvette Roland made “a preliminary finding of culpability,” saying the case will “move forward with not only rebuttal testimony but aggravation.”

Having secured a preliminary ruling that Eastman is culpable, prosecutors in the case are now free to proceed with arguments about aggravating circumstances in the case that they contend merit Eastman’s disbarment, such as harassment of election officials. Given the opportunity to respond, Eastman–in stark contrast to fellow Donald Trump attorney Jenna Ellis, who pleaded guilty last week in the Georgia criminal case in which Eastman also stands accused–doubled down on his now three years-disproven “belief” that the 2020 election was indeed stolen:

The former Chapman University law professor when asked by Roland said the evidence during the trial “only confirmed” his views “illegality opened the door to fraud,” and that the vice president and not Congress had the authority to resolve disputes over electors.

Eastman maintains that ballots were illegally counted and actions taken by local election authorities without legislative authorization that invalidated the election.

He testified that Vice President Mike Pence had the authority to delay counting electoral ballots as president of the Senate to allow states to resolve any disputes. That was disputed by Pence chief counsel Gregory F. Jacob and White House lawyer Eric Herschmann regarding vice presidential authority to reject electoral votes.

Closing arguments in the trial, in which the bar seeks to lift Eastman’s license, are scheduled for Friday, with election officials also set to testify.

That Eastman is clinging fast to the “Big Lie” falsely justifying his actions is a sign that Eastman, unlike Jenna Ellis, may not be planning to take a plea deal in the Georgia criminal case–but instead rely on his supposedly “sincere” belief that the 2020 presidential election was stolen to mitigate his criminal culpability for violations of law Eastman once candidly admitted to. Ellis’ carefully-worded admission in her plea agreement apology was that she failed to “make sure that the facts the other lawyers alleged to be true were in fact true”–meaning the facts presented to her by higher-ranking attorneys like Eastman and Rudy Giuliani.

The question therefore for the California Supreme Court is whether Eastman’s unshakable professed belief that Donald Trump is the rightful President is reasonable, in light of the lack of any evidence to support that belief–or the result of dishonesty or some other unsoundness of mind that disqualifies Eastman from practicing law.

And with the lower-ranking attorneys pleading out in Georgia, Eastman’s case there may be where the “Big Lie” finally gets a full reckoning in a criminal trial. Eastman’s defense, like Trump’s, may hinge on a jury believing that these men can persuade themselves to “sincerely” believe anything. A surrender of shame to avoid a literal surrender.

For Eastman’s many friends and boosters in Colorado, there’s plenty of shame to go around.