John Eastman’s trial by fire before the State Bar of California is now one day old. He may last for another seven days, although if today is any indication of how things are going, he’ll do himself no service by dragging this matter out. One blow up already happened, when a purported “expert witness” turned out to not be an expert. A CPA named Joseph Fried was called to testify on voting “irregularities” in the State of Georgia and he was quickly shot down as not being an expert on voting or elections. So much for that witness.
The rest of today’s testimony went as you might expect, with Eastman trying to depict himself as the good American, insuring the integrity of our elections and the State Bar attorney telling an entirely different story. Washington Post:
Randall Miller, an attorney for Eastman, said in his opening statement that Eastman had pushed to delay the counting of electoral votes so that there could be a “reasonable investigation” into alleged voting “irregularities.”
“He was not there to steal the election or invent ways to make President Trump the winner if, in fact, he lost,” Miller said. “The focus was on ensuring the election was properly and legally conducted and certified and votes were properly counted.”
But Duncan Carling, an attorney for the state bar, argued that all of Eastman’s conduct was focused on the single purpose of obstructing the certification of Joe Biden’s electoral win on Jan. 6, 2021.
“Dr. Eastman sought at every turn to avoid every public test of his theory, and he privately confessed … that his theory had no chance of persuading the court,” Carling said in his opening statement.
Carling also said Eastman was “fully aware” that his plan was damaging the nation — including putting Vice President Mike Pence and members of Congress in danger during the insurrection — and that his actions “breached the most important ethical duties of attorneys: of honesty and adherence to the rule of law.”
Mike Pence’s lawyer, Greg Jacob, is set to testify in the days ahead and that ought to be interesting. You may recall Jacob texting Eastman the day of the riot, “Thanks to your bullshit, we’re under siege.”
I’ve personally seen lawyers lose their licenses for far less egregious acts than the ones that Eastman has committed. If there’s any justice in the world, Eastman won’t have a bar card in his pocket in a couple of weeks.
It’s a testament to our system of justice that his bar card has not already been pulled. He is around 60 yrs old, so one would think he had already lined his retirement. Why go through this public humiliation when one could quietly retire and hopefully avoid any blowback from J6 investigations? I seriously doubt DOJ would go out of their way to prosecute this idiot if he would just go away. Yes, he provided dubious opinions of the electoral laws, but it’s on the idiots who relied upon it to face the most serious repercussions.
Doj… now after recent reporting… not going to prosecute even if he had the plans to storm the capitol… even crayon and ketchup plans. Yay. (Ffs)
This isn’t the DOJ going after him. This is the California Bar carrying out its legal duty to investigate and deal with allegations that an attorney has committed malpractice or another unethical or illegal act. Eastman was a practicing attorney when the alleged violations occurred, and so the Bar has an obligation to deal with it, whether he’s currently practicing (he is) or not. It wouldn’t have mattered had Eastman committed such an act and then retired. The Bar would still have this obligation.
Is witness testimony in all this sworn/under oath? I would think so since it’s a formal hearing but whether lying under oath during such a proceeding can be prosecuted criminally in the jurisdiction where it happens is another question. Each state gets to make its own laws on stuff like that. But still it opens up a tantalizing possibility if Eastman testifies in his own defense. Just as doctors make the worst patients, lawyers make the worst witnesses. Especially when it’s their own butt on the hot seat. The old saying about a person who represents themself in court having a fool for a client is even more true when it’s a lawyer.
And the bigger, more famous and even accomplished the lawyer the more they are tempted when testifying to match wits with the prosecution and try to out-lawyer them! One of the most well-known instances was Bill Clinton who tried to get clever and it cost him in the end.
If Eastman takes the stand on his own behalf I don’t think he’s humble enough to avoid screwing himself by trying to flip the script on the lawyer(s0 questioning him.
This is not a court of law. The Bar is limited in what kind of sanctions it can hand out. For example, they can’t send him to jail. But if they find he violated the rules of ethical behavior, they can penalize him for example with fines or suspension or expulsion from the practice of law in California.