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Judge recommends disbarring attorney who aided Trump

David Wickert, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution on

Published in News & Features

Another defendant in the Georgia election interference case may lose his license to practice law for aiding Donald Trump’s efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential election.

John Eastman devised questionable legal theories that Trump used to try to persuade state legislators and Vice President Mike Pence to reject Democrat Joe Biden’s victory. On Wednesday a California judge recommended that Eastman be barred from practicing law in the state, citing his efforts to overturn the election in Georgia and other swing states Biden won. The California Supreme Court will review the ruling, but Eastman’s license will become inactive in three days, according to Wednesday’s order.

Judge Yvette Roland of the State Bar Court cited Eastman’s “multiple patently false and misleading statements in court filings, in public remarks heard by countless Americans and to others regarding the conduct of the 2020 presidential election and Vice President Pence’s authority to refuse to count or delay counting properly certified slates of electoral votes on January 6, 2021.”

Eastman’s lawyers issued a statement late Wednesday defending his actions.

“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 said. “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.”

Christine P. Sun, a senior vice president at the States United Democracy Center, which filed an ethics complaint against Eastman, hailed the ruling.

 

“This decision sends an unmistakable message: No one is above the law — not presidents, and not their lawyers,” Sun said.

Eastman’s legal odyssey is not over. He is one of 19 people charged last year for their roles in an alleged scheme to steal the election in Georgia. He is also an unindicted co-conspirator in the federal election case against Trump.

Eastman is one of dozens of lawyers who have faced ethics complaints for aiding Trump’s effort to remain in the White House despite losing to Biden. Among them are seven of the original Georgia defendants.

New York has suspended the law license of Rudy Giuliani, and the Washington, D.C., bar is seeking his disbarment. Federal courts have upheld sanctions against attorney Sidney Powell, who pleaded guilty to six misdemeanor counts in the Georgia election case last fall.

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©2024 The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Visit at ajc.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

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