Man, if you’re looking to go to the gas chamber on a traffic ticket, hire Rudy Giuliani. This is an old axiom — at least in New York City it is — and it’s astounding that John Eastman isn’t aware of it, but if we are to believe today’s testimony in his disbarment proceedings, that is indeed the case. Read these excerpts from NPR and see if you think that Eastman is on the level or is he trying to prepare to cop an insanity plea?
DREISBACH: Eastman was actually the first witness called by the state bar. And he was a lot more muted on the stand than at that rally you heard on January 6. And he was asked about the sources of some of the wild claims in legal filings and public comments he made about supposed voter fraud or irregularities in the election. And basically, he said he trusted information that they were getting on the legal team was vetted because he trusted the lawyers he worked with. But he did not actually do much of the vetting himself.
He trusted Rudy and Sidney? And Jenna? OMG. C’mon, man. If that’s the case, it’s time to take your bar card out of your wallet and kiss it goodbye.
But it got even crazier than that.
And I should say, there’s no indication he’s backed away from some of his legal theories. In one interesting exchange, the state bar asked about his theory on decertifying an election. Even more than a year after the fact, Eastman contended that even though it would be uncharted territory, he said it was plausible that Joe Biden’s election could still be decertified, and he could be kicked out of office. Now, Eastman is set to resume his testimony tomorrow.
I don’t know in what world it is even remotely possible, let alone “plausible” that Joe Biden could find himself decertified and kicked out of office in the third year of his term. This is too Bizarro World-ish for me already. I thought this trial would get oddball, but I didn’t think it would go here, and certainly not on Day Two.
MARTIN: What else can we expect from the rest of the trial?
DREISBACH: Well, it’s supposed to last about two weeks. With Eastman under oath, we could get some new information about the behind-the-scenes work to overturn the 2020 election. We’re also supposed to hear from Greg Jacob, who was a lawyer for then-Vice President Pence. And Eastman’s witness list includes some really fringe figures who have supported election denial. Now, the judge in the case will ultimately make a ruling, but the California Supreme Court has the final say here.
My understanding was that the trial was going to run one week, so I don’t know where NPR got this new statistic. But fine, the more time Eastman is on the stand, the quicker he hangs himself, right?
And I can’t wait for the “fringe figures” to show up. This is going to be classic. This trial will one day be depicted in a Hollywood movie. Probably a lot of us will be dead and gone (I make this assessment based on how it took about 50 years for Watergate movies to start showing up) but the way this trial is going, it will be immortalized as black comedy. I feel safe saying that.
He has no hope of maintaining his bar card. IANAL, but I’m pretty sure if you put something in a filing to the court, you are asserting, under penalty of perjury, that it is in fact true. I also believe there is something called “due diligence.” Which means you don’t take someone’s word for something without doing the minimum amount of investigation to ascertain the verity of the information. Anyone, with 2 firing synapses, would know better than to take Rudy’s word or Sidney Powell’s either. Their numerous public appearances proved they didn’t even qualify for the short bus, they need to be escorted by orderlies while wearing that white wrap around jacket.
All the President’s Men came out in 1976, so hopefully we don’t need to wait 50 years.