John Eastman says he dealt directly with Trump over January 6 plans

At the time, Judge David O. Carter of the United States District Court for the Central District of California ordered the release of more than 100 emails from Mr. Eastman; Mr. Eastman turned them over to the House Committee as he continued to fight for the release of the others.

Among the documents Mr. Eastman handed over was a draft memo written for Rudolph W. Giuliani, Mr. Trump’s personal attorney, which recommended that Vice President Mike Pence reject voters in disputed states in his oversight role. certification by Congress of the Electoral College. results on January 6.

In their filing, lawyers for Mr. Eastman wrote that their client disagreed with Justice Carter’s finding that he had undermined democracy, arguing that Mr. Eastman truly believed the election was stolen . The filing cited the work of conservative media figures – including Dinesh D’Souza’s new film “2000 Mules”, which fact-checkers described as misleading – as evidence that widespread fraud occurred in the election.

“If, as seemed clear to Dr. Eastman and his client at the time, there was illegality and fraud in the election of sufficient magnitude to have altered the outcome of the election, then far from” undermine ‘democracy, Dr Eastman’s actions and advice should be seen for what they were – a legitimate attempt to prevent a stolen election,’ Mr Eastman’s lawyers wrote. Dr. Eastman was wrong about that, but even if he was, to be wrong about factual claims is not and never has been criminal.

They added, “Dr. Eastman’s position remains that his legal theories, controversial as they may have been, were not illegal.

In the filing, Mr. Eastman said he started working for Mr. Trump two months before the 2020 election at the invitation of Cleta Mitchella lawyer who the Jan. 6 committee said “promoted false claims of voter fraud to members of Congress” and participated in a call in which Mr. Trump tried to pressure the Georgian secretary of state to that he “finds” enough votes to undo his loss there.”

Mr Eastman, Ms Mitchell and others began preparing to fight the election results well before Election Day, but the effort ‘shifted into high gear’ on November 7 – four days after the election — when Mr. Eastman met with Mr. Trump. campaign team in Philadelphia to help prepare for an election challenge, according to the filing.