The efforts of John Eastman, an ex-attorney for former President Donald Trump, to convince then-Vice President Mike Pence that he could interfere with Congress’ certification of the 2020 election results will be the subject of several days of attorney ethics proceedings set to begin in a Los Angeles courtroom on Tuesday.
Disciplinary attorneys for the California Bar will be asking the court to disbar Eastman for that and other conduct related to the 2020 election advocacy he did for Trump.
The proceedings, coming at a time when Trump is struggling to build out his legal team for the classified documents charges he’s facing from special counsel Jack Smith, are a reminder of the predicaments Trump’s lawyers find themselves in for their work with the former president.
The disciplinary hearings could surface new information about the behind-the-scenes efforts by the Trump team to reverse his reelection loss, particularly with Eastman slated to take the stand at the trial-like proceeding. A Smith-led special counsel investigation into those election subversion maneuvers is ongoing, and last summer, federal investigators seized Eastman’s phone.
Eastman and his attorneys have vigorously defended his representation of Trump during the 2020 election. They argue that the California Bar is going after conduct that is shielded by the First Amendment’s protections for political speech.
The trial attorneys for the California Bar declined CNN’s request for comment. Their filings accuse Eastman of causing “significant and ongoing harm to the legal profession and the public.”
“Though respondent has attempted to characterize his conduct as nothing more than zealous advocacy, by early December 2020, respondent knew or was willfully blind to the fact that Joe Biden had won the presidential election and that any effort to challenge or overturn…
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