May 13, 2024 11:39 AM UTC

Soon-To-Be Ex-Lawyer John Eastman Withdraws From Gadsden Flag Kid Case

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• by: Colorado Pols

As Michael Karlik reports for the Colorado Springs Gazette’s political blog, former University of Colorado conservative scholar and 2020 presidential election coup plotter John Eastman is one step closer to the ignominious end of his career practicing law after withdrawing from a Colorado Springs civil case under pressure from the presiding judge citing the suspension of Eastman’s California law license:

On Friday, Eastman informed Crews he had asked the clerk’s office for the district court to revisit its determination that he was not in good standing.

“Nevertheless,” the filing continued, “Dr. Eastman has, after consultation with his client and co-counsel, determined to withdraw as attorney of record in this matter. He will file a renewed notice of appearance should the Clerk’s withdrawal of good standing be reversed.”

Crews immediately granted Eastman’s request to leave the case. The California judge who recommended Eastman’s disbarment rejected his attempt to temporarily lift his inactive status last week.

The civil lawsuit from which Eastman withdrew on Friday is one of two in Colorado that Eastman is involved with, the much better-known case of the two being the Colorado Republican Party’s so-far fruitless attempt to bar unaffiliated voters from participating in their primaries. This case pertains to the 12-year-old charter school student in Colorado Springs who was told by school administrators to remove various conservative pieces of flair including an AR-15 lapel pin and a Gadsden flag, resulting in a “free speech” lawsuit from the conservative Mountain States Legal Foundation with Eastman retained as an attorney of record in the case.

We assume it’s only a matter of time before Eastman is shown the door in the Colorado GOP’s case against unaffiliated voters, too. Unlike Eastman’s 2020 coup plotter junior partner Jenna Ellis, who has thrown herself on the mercy of the courts and attorney regulators by freely confessing to her many “at least reckless” false statements, Eastman doubled down on the “Big Lie” even as the consequences of his role in the scheme have put Eastman’s career in a terminal dive. Eastman has chosen to embrace this absurdity as part of his defense, trading in any remaining credibility for the chance to argue he was too deluded by false claims of election fraud to realize he was the one actually committing crimes.

Even if that defense somehow succeeds in Eastman’s criminal cases, we should all be able to agree: no more lawyering for this guy.