LOS ANGELES — An effort to disbar conservative attorney John Eastman, who devised ways to keep former President Donald Trump in the White House after his defeat the 2020 election, will begin Tuesday in Los Angeles.
Eastman is expected to spend the day testifying before the State Bar of California in a proceeding that could result in him losing his license to practice law in the state. He faces 11 disciplinary charges stemming from his development of a dubious legal strategy that was aimed at helping Trump remain in power by disrupting the counting of state electoral votes.
The State Bar’s counsel will seek Eastman’s disbarment during a hearing before the State Bar Court that’s expected to last at least eight days. If the court finds Eastman culpable of the alleged violations it can recommend a punishment such as suspending or revoking his law license. The California Supreme Court makes the final decision.
Eastman is scheduled to testify in his own defense Tuesday. The proceedings will feature witnesses such as Greg Jacob, a former attorney for then-Vice President Mike Pence who pushed back against Eastman’s plan to have Pence stop the certification of Joe Biden’s victory.
Eastman was one of Trump’s lawyers during the election. He argued, in a memo, that Pence could keep Trump in power by overturning the results of the election during a joint session of Congress convened to count electoral votes. Critics have likened that to instructions for staging a coup.
Eastman violated California’s business and professions code by making false and misleading statements that constitute acts of “moral turpitude, dishonesty, and corruption,” the State Bar alleges, and in doing so he “violated this duty in furtherance of an attempt to usurp the will of the American people and overturn election results for the highest office in the land — an egregious and unprecedented attack on our democracy.”
Eastman’s attorney previously said his client disputes “every aspect”…
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