Bumbling Trump Coup Lawyer John Eastman Finds Yet Another Bar Complaint In His Stocking

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Another day, another bar complaint for attorney John Eastman, author of the “Coups 4 Dummies” memos advising Trumpland on multiple paths to steal the electoral college and keep their guy sitting pretty in the Oval Office for another four years.

Eastman, whose sudden separation from Chapman University Law School followed close on the heels of his participation in the January 6 rally, was already facing one complaint in his home state of California. And now he’s got another reminder of his standing within the profession, as some 1,300 attorneys have already signed their names to a complaint filed by Lawyers Defending American Democracy (LDAD) against Eastman with the State Bar of California. (Hat tip to Law.com, which was first to flag the complaint.)

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LDAD filed a similar complaint against former Justice Department lawyer Jeffrey Clark, who maneuvered to get himself made Attorney General so he could announce investigations into non-existent vote fraud, allowing swing state legislators to throw their electoral votes to Trump. But as more facts come out about about the events leading up to the January 6 riot, LDAD appears to have changed its strategy. They’re now alleging what amounts to a conspiracy between Eastman, Clark, and Giuliani to overturn the election.

The essence of our complaint is that when Mr. Eastman engaged in the activities documented by States United, he was not acting independently to provide legal advice to President Trump. Instead, he was participating with Mr. Giuliani and Mr. Clark in a carefully orchestrated collective plan to overturn the results of the 2020 Presidential election even though all of the available evidence clearly showed that Joseph R. Biden had won.

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The petitioners claim that Eastman’s effort to subvert the will of the voters amounts to a violation of California Rule of Professional Conduct 8.4(c), which prohibits a lawyer to “engage in conduct involving dishonesty, fraud, deceit, or reckless or intentional misrepresentation.”

They further cite to Rules of Procedure, Title IV, Standard 1.7(b), which imposes a heightened penalty in cases of “aggravating circumstances.”

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On balance, a greater sanction is appropriate in cases where there is serious harm to the client, the public, the legal system, or the profession and where the record demonstrates that the lawyer is unwilling or unable to conform to ethical responsibilities.

The signatories urge the bar to impose this heightened sanction on Eastman.

The collaboration among Mr. Giuliani, Mr. Clark, Mr. Eastman and other lawyers leveraged their individual misconduct to increase the damage to our constitutional republic and the legal profession. We strongly urge that Mr. Eastman’s collaboration with those other lawyers in what amounted to an attempted coup is an aggravating factor in his violation of Rule 8(4)(c). Theirs was no casual dishonesty.

Well, good luck to ’em. According to the State Bar of California’s website, of almost 17,500 referrals received in 2020, it punished just 211 attorneys. Or as John Eastman would say, “We know there was fraud. Traditional fraud that occurred. We know that dead people voted. But now we know because we caught it live the last time in real time, how the machines contributed to that fraud.”

HASHTAG RIGGED.

LDAD Complaint

Liz Dye lives in Baltimore where she writes about law and politics.

Topics

Capitol riot, Government, John Eastman, Legal Ethics