John Eastman’s “Legal Defense Fund” remains well shy of its $1.5 million goal, even as he loses another round in the fight to retain his California law license.
“Due to the serious nature and extent of Eastman’s misconduct and the weight of aggravating circumstances … we recommend that Eastman be disbarred,” concluded a three-judge panel of the State Bar Court of California Review Department on June 13. “Disbarment is necessary to protect the public, the courts and the legal profession….
Ouch. It’s a bit out-of-body that, even as Jan. 6, 2021 enjoys a major makeover — and people who violently assaulted police officers are pardoned — California pushes forward with this almost quaint attempt at accountability.
The battle
A litany of withering charges were filed by the California Bar against Eastman, Chapman University’s former law dean, including moral turpitude, dishonesty and/or corruption, willful misconduct and/or gross negligence, for trying to reverse the legitimate results of an election and essentially yelling “Fire!” in a crowded theater.
After a contentious bar trial that stretched for months in 2023, a California State Bar judge ruled that Eastman betrayed the fundamental oaths he swore to uphold as a licensed attorney by knowingly spreading untruths about the 2020 election to keep then-President Donald Trump in power, and thus should lose his law license.
Eastman’s lawyers filed an 85-page “tour de force” appeal in September, demanding that the State Bar Review Department reject that conclusion. “The stupefying result” ravaged Eastman’s First Amendment rights to speech and to petition the government, violated due process and wreaked of bias and partisanship, they argued. “In sum, this prosecution should never have taken place. It is, rather, a manifestation of George Orwell’s dystopic depiction of authoritarianism – statements by the Government, no matter how demonstrably false or suspect, must be accepted as truth.”
The Bar Review judges strongly disagreed. Eastman is, indeed, culpable for 10 of the 11 counts he was charged with, they said the opinion issued Friday.
In a democracy, nothing can be more fundamental than the orderly transfer of power after a fair and unimpeded electoral process as established by law, they said. When an attorney — sworn to uphold the laws and constitutions of both the state and nation — “attempts to actively undermine the results of an election to the most powerful office in the United States with the goal of delaying or invalidating the lawful installation of his client’s electoral opponent,” disbarment is the only option, the opinion said.
“We recommend that John Charles Eastman, State Bar Number 193726, be disbarred from the practice of law in California and that Eastman’s name be stricken from the roll of attorneys,” they said.
Eastman was expecting as much, and will ask the state Supreme Court to review the review — and reverse it.
“Dr. Eastman is disappointed in the Review Court’s opinion, and believes that its analysis and conclusions are not substantiated by the truth, the record or the law,” said a statement from his attorney, Randall A. Miller. “It has been established, through decades of United States Supreme Court precedent, that lawyers enjoy broad First Amendment protections, especially when engaged on behalf of a client, with duties of utmost and undivided loyalty and zealous advocacy. The Review Court’s decision is at stark odds with those principles.
“The decision is an unconstitutional abuse of power against lawyers and the legal system, diminishes the profession’s revered independence, and will chill attorneys from representing clients in unpopular or controversial matters, especially those that are inimical to the government. Dr. Eastman will seek further review of the Review Court’s decision in the California Supreme Court and, if necessary, beyond, and is highly confident of his ultimate vindication.”
The State Bar is equally confident it will prevail.
“Attorneys have a fundamental obligation to be truthful and uphold the rule of law,” said a statement from Chief Trial Counsel George Cardona. “John Eastman violated this obligation when, at the behest of his client, now-President Donald Trump, he engaged in a calculated campaign to falsely undermine the results of the 2020 presidential election, which then-candidate Donald Trump lost. In so doing, Mr. Eastman lied to courts, Vice President Michael Pence, and the American people. As the Review Department’s Opinion holds, for this conduct disbarment is both appropriate and necessary. This opinion serves as a powerful and timely reminder that whoever they are and whoever they represent, attorneys must remain true to the ethical rules that govern their conduct and respect the rule of law.”
Still engaged
In the meantime, Eastman can’t practice law in California. But he has been weighing in on some of the most contentious legal issues of our times.
Eastman was “very happy” when Trump announced he would end birthright citizenship on his first day back in office, Eastman recently told the New York Times.
He penned a friend-of-the-court brief to the U.S. Supreme Court, urging it to hold that the 14th Amendment “does not confer automatic citizenship on the children of temporary sojourners or those present in the United States illegally.”
He also attended the Supreme Court hearing on Trump’s executive order in May, and wrote an article critiquing the justices titled “Supreme Confusion” for “The American Mind.”
“One of the evident purposes of those engaging in the lawfare attacks against me has been to attempt to sideline me from my long-standing efforts to advocate in the courts for the principles of the American founding and the original meaning of the Constitution,” Eastman wrote on his GiveSendGo fundraising page. “(T)hey are not succeeding.”
Eastman has also faced state charges related to the 2020 election in Georgia and Arizona, though it’s unclear if, or how, they will proceed. Legal bills would exceed $3 million, he said last year, and has set his latest fundraising goal at $1.5 million (it started out at $200,000 back in 2022).
In September, Eastman’s Legal Defense Fund had donations just shy of $900,000. Today, some nine months later, it has just a bit more than $930,000. But if past is prologue, decisions such as Friday’s tend to boost fundraising as soon as word gets out.
“God Bless, John,” wrote “Katie,” who donated $50 to Eastman’s cause on Saturday. “Stay strong!”
