BREAKING: John Eastman should be disbarred, a California judge ruled Wednesday, issuing her final report after months of hearings and testimony about his fringe legal effort to keep Donald Trump in power.
Eastman will lose his ability to practice law in three days.
Details TK
NEWS: John Eastman's wrongdoing in 2020 was so extensive — his refusal to accept responsibility so pervasive — that the only remedy for is disbarment, a California judge ruled today.
The 128-page opinion was a thorough rebuke of the Trump ally.
politico.com/news/2024/03/2…
MORE: State bar investigators proved that Eastman conspired with Trump to violate criminal laws and derail the transfer of power, Roland ruled. politico.com/news/2024/03/2…
Read the full 128-page opinion recommending Eastman's disbarment: documentcloud.org/documents/2452…
ROLAND did reject one of the charges against Eastman, finding that the investigators did not prove that his Jan. 6 rally speech directly incited the crowd. politico.com/news/2024/03/2…
IMPORTANTLY: Though Roland's decision is a "recommendation" to the state Supreme Court, it automatically triggers a process to put Eastman on "inactive" status as an attorney, prohibiting him from practicing law. politico.com/news/2024/03/2…
That "inactive" status for Eastman takes effect in 3 days and remains in effect until the Supreme Court either affirms his disbarment or orders a different penalty. politico.com/news/2024/03/2…
Though Eastman cannot practice law anymore, he is NOT technically disbarred yet. This is the start of a process leading to the CA Supreme Court. Eastman can (and surely will) appeal Roland's ruling. politico.com/news/2024/03/2…
UPDATE: John Eastman plans to appeal the disbarment ruling to a panel of California’s State Bar Court.
His lawyer says it’s unfair Eastman should have to fight criminal charges in GA without being able to earn money as a lawyer to pay his legal bills.
politico.com/news/2024/03/2…
EASTMAN's attorney status in California has been updated to reflect that he's both charged with felonies in Georgia and marked for "inactive" status beginning Saturday as a result of his disbarment ruling.
FACTUAL FINDINGS: The judge who ordered Eastman's disbarment spent the first 75 pages of her ruling explaining why Eastman's claims about election fraud were based on data that he did — or should have — known were unreliable, with even miminal due diligence.
A sampling:
1) Deceased voters in Georgia: The data Eastman used to claim 10,315 dead people voted did not account for high likelihood of false positives.
politico.com/news/2024/03/2…
2) Convicted felons voting: Eastman relied on data showing 2,560 felons voting but also failed ot account for high likelihood of false positives. politico.com/news/2024/03/2…
3) Underage registrations: Eastman relied on data claiming 66,247 underage registrants, but it turned out to be based on an error and revised down to 778. It's not clear whether any of these 778 actually voted in 2020. politico.com/news/2024/03/2…
4) Eastman relied on a claim that 1,043 voters improperly registered with nonresidential addresses, but the data failed to account for some voters who live in commercial facilities or simply misunderstood registration forms. politico.com/news/2024/03/2…
5) Eastman claimed in his infamous 6-page memo that Michigan mailed out absentee ballots to every registered voter, eliding the fact that what was maield were *applications* for absentee ballots, not ballots themselves. politico.com/news/2024/03/2…
6) Eastman's Jan. 6 remarks on the Ellipse implied Dominion voting machine fraud even though he had seen no "conclusive" evidence that such fraud occurred.
As she repeatedly noted, Judge Roland said Eastman simply accepted favorable claims and ignored more persuasive rebuttals.
UPDATE: John Eastman's official status with the California bar has been updated to reflect his inability to practice law in California: apps.calbar.ca.gov/attorney/Licen…
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