Attorney John Eastman, who masterminded a legal strategy to attempt to overturn the 2020 election, faces disbarment in California for his efforts to keep former President Donald Trump in power.
The onetime Trump lawyer's plan relied on battleground states to find Trump-supporting electors and on then-Vice President Mike Pence to toss out real electors.
Eastman faces 11 disciplinary charges in the State Bar Court of California, which has alleged Eastman violated his duty to uphold the U.S. and California state constitutions in an attempt to “usurp the will of the American people and overturn election results for the highest office in the land.”
Disciplinary proceedings against Eastman began Tuesday and are expected to last at least eight days.
Eastman’s attorney, Randall A. Miller, argued Tuesday in court that Eastman wasn't looking to "steal the election" or "invent ways" to make Trump the winner, but rather engaging in what he said was a serious debate about the vice president's authority regarding election certification.
“The facts will show that the purpose of Dr. Eastman’s eventual assessment here was to delay, to delay the counting of the electoral votes so that there could be reasonable investigation undertaken by those states,” Miller said.
Attorneys for the office of chief trial counsel, which is seeking Eastman's disbarment, said Eastman's "misconduct" was done with "one singular purpose: To obstruct the electoral count on Jan. 6 and stop Vice President Pence from certifying Joe Biden as the winner of the election."
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Eastman argued in 2020 that the 12th Amendment gave Pence the sole authority to count the votes certifying the presidential winner, and the Electoral Count Act − which codified the rules for counting votes − gave him the authority to reject votes from states with rival slates of electors. Under that legal theory, Pence could have rejected Biden's electoral votes.
But on Jan. 6, 2021, the day of the 2020 election certification, Pence declined to overturn the election results, writing in a letter that his "oath to support and defend the Constitution constrains me from claiming unilateral authority to determine which electoral votes should be counted and which should not."
One of Pence's former attorneys, Greg Jacob, is expected to testify during the proceedings.
Even Eastman didn't believe his own theory; he told Jacob that he didn't think the plot would hold up before the Supreme Court, according to evidence revealed by the Jan. 6 committee. He also requested a pardon from Trump.
If the court deems Eastman culpable of the alleged violations, his law license could be suspended or revoked. The California Supreme Court makes the final decision.
Eastman holds law licenses in both Washington, D.C. and California.
Contributing: Associated Press
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