John Eastman

John Charles Eastman (born 1960) is an American lawyer and academic who has been criminally indicted and recommended for disbarment for attempting to keep then-president Donald Trump in office and obstruct the certification of Joe Biden's victory in the 2020 United States presidential election. Eastman has lost eligibility to practice law in California state courts, pending his appeal of the state bar judge's ruling that recommended him for disbarment. Eastman is also a co-conspirator in the federal indictment brought against Trump over his attempts to subvert the 2020 election results and prevent the certification of Biden’s election.

Eastman is the founding director of the Center for Constitutional Jurisprudence, a public-interest law firm affiliated with the Claremont Institute, a conservative think tank. He is a former professor and former dean at Chapman University School of Law. He ran unsuccessfully as a Republican for California's 34th congressional district in 1990, and for California Attorney General in 2010. He is a former law clerk to Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas.

Eastman's alleged role in attempting to keep Trump in office includes pressuring Vice President Mike Pence to reject the votes of electors from crucial swing states that Joe Biden won. Eastman is believed to be one of the six alleged co-conspirators listed in the Justice Department’s federal indictment of Trump.

Eastman wrote a controversial op-ed in August 2020 that falsely suggested the then-presumed Democratic nominee for U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris was not a "natural-born citizen" within the meaning of Article II of the Constitution and thus ineligible for the position.

Eastman was a key participant in the subsequent attempts to overturn the election; during President Donald Trump's last efforts before the certification of Joe Biden's Electoral College victory, Eastman told Vice President Mike Pence in an Oval Office meeting, on January 5, 2021, that Pence had the constitutional authority to block the certification. Pence did not accept Eastman's argument. Eastman also sent Republican senator Mike Lee a six-point plan of action for Pence to throw out the electors from seven states to keep Trump in power, which Lee rejected.

On January 6, 2021, Eastman gave a speech at the White House Trump rally that preceded the 2021 United States Capitol attack. Later that day, after rioters had attacked the Capitol, Eastman e-mailed Greg Jacob, counsel to Vice President Pence, and implored him to violate the Electoral Count Act by delaying certification of the election. Jacob responded by calling Eastman's arguments "bullshit" and calling Eastman a "serpent in the ear of the president". On January 13, 2021, Eastman retired from the Chapman faculty after the controversy created by his speech at the Trump rally. On March 28, 2022, federal judge David O. Carter found Eastman, along with Trump, was more likely than not to have "dishonestly conspired to obstruct the joint session of Congress on Jan. 6, 2021". In December 2022, the United States House Select Committee on the January 6 Attack recommended Eastman be charged with obstruction of an official proceeding and conspiracy to defraud the United States, along with Trump and potentially others. Eastman is suspected of being a co-conspirator in the August 1, 2023, indictment of Trump for conspiring to defraud the United States, conspiring to disenfranchise voters, and conspiring and attempting to obstruct an official proceeding. On August 14, 2023, he was indicted along with eighteen other people in the prosecution related to the 2020 election in Georgia; he surrendered the following week and was booked into the Fulton County jail. He has since appeared on Fox News and other right-wing networks to declare his innocence. Provided by Wikipedia