A group of prominent attorneys, including former judges and politicians, have submitted a request to the State Bar of California asking it to launch a probe into the alleged role of a former Chapman University law professor in advising the Trump White House on how to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election.
Members of the nonpartisan States United Democracy Center urged the bar to investigate Eastman's alleged efforts to manipulate the election in favor of former President Trump through legal work and an incendiary Jan. 2021 speech.
Signatories included former New Jersey Gov. Christine Todd Whitman and former Montana Gov. Steve Bullck; retired California Supreme Court Justices Kathryn Werdegar and Joseph Grodin; retired California federal judges Thelton Hendrson, Fern M. Smith and Lowell Jensen as well as law professor Erwin Chemerinsky of UC Berkeley and Laurence Tribe of Harvard.
John C. Eastman taught law at the Orange County university and was was dean of its law school until January of this year. The Los Angeles Times described him as a "key legal advisor to Trump" in the immediate aftermath of the president's 2020 electoral defeat.
Eastman reportedly wrote two legal memoranda advising former Vice President Mike Pence that he could overturn voting results in states where the Trump campaign was challenging wins by President Biden.
Trump "repeatedly pressed" Pence to follow Eastman's guidance, The Times reported. Ultimately, the vice president oversaw a full tally of Electoral College votes, confirming the election of President Biden.
"We write to request that the State Bar investigate serious evidence of professional misconduct by Professor John C. Eastman in connection with his representation of former President Donald J. Trump in efforts to discredit and overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election," the States United attorneys wrote in a letter fo George S. Cardona, chief trial counsel at the L.A. office of the State Bar of California.
"The available evidence supports a strong case that [...] Mr. Eastman violated his ethical obligations as an attorney by filing frivolous claims, making false statements and engaging in deceptive conduct," the letter read. "On Jan. 6, 2021, Mr. Eastman continued this pattern of misconduct by giving the crowd at the 'Stop the Steal' rally on the National Mall another version of his misleading advice and stating that, by rejecting it, Mr. Pence had proved himself undeserving of his office."
Eastman responded by calling the letter a "politically-motivated and defamatory attack" on his legal representation of a "controversial client." He asked the bar to dismiss the probe request entirely.
"If not, I look forward to responding in full to every false assertion," he said.
Eastman resigned from his position on the Chapman University faculty earlier this year, after it came to light he spoke at a pro-Trump rally that preceded—and some said helped incite—the Jan. 6 assault on the U.S. Capitol.
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