A California judge issued a recommendation on Wednesday that attorney John Eastman be disbarred in the state over his advise to then-President Donald Trump in his efforts to challenge the accuracy of the 2020 election results.
State Bar Court of California Judge Yvette Roland found Mr. Eastman culpable on 10 of 11 counts of misconduct alleged by the California State Bar last year. The eleventh count was dismissed with prejudice.
Judge Roland’s opinion serves as a recommendation to the California Supreme Court, which will next decide on whether Mr. Eastman should lose his state law license.
The judge wrote in her opinion that Mr. Eastman “exhibited an unwillingness to acknowledge any ethical lapses” in his conduct, which she noted as including presenting “falsehoods to bolster his legal arguments.”
“This lack of remorse and accountability presents a significant risk that Eastman may engage in further unethical conduct, compounding the threat to the public,” she wrote.
Judge Roland found that Mr. Eastman exhibited “gross negligence by making false statements” about the 2020 election results “without conducting any meaningful investigation or verification of the information he was relying upon.”
The judge also recommended that $10,000 in monetary sanctions be ordered against Mr. Eastman. She acknowledged that this figure “is a deviation” from the norm; however, she found it to be appropriate “under the facts and circumstances.”
Judge Roland wrote that she recommended the monetary sanctions “given the gravity of Eastman’s misconduct involving multiple acts of moral turpitude and the substantial aggravation, including his refusal to acknowledge any impropriety in his actions.”
Specifically, $5,000 in sanctions were noted as due to “his misconduct in connection with filing several pleadings seeking to mislead the courts.”
The other half of the total figure is “for making numerous false and misleading statements regarding the conduct of the 2020 presidential election and Vice President Pence’s authority to refuse to count or delay counting properly certified slates of electoral votes and for his collaborative efforts with President Trump to impede the counting of electoral votes.”
The penalty would be paid to the State Bar of California Client Security Fund, according to the opinion.
The recommendation comes after a lengthy trial and can be appealed by the ex-Trump attorney.
Mr. Eastman, who represented President Trump as he sought to challenge the accuracy of the count leading to the 2020 election results, faces 11 disciplinary charges in the state bar court. Mr. Eastman helped develop a legal strategy to have then-Vice President Mike Pence refuse to certify the election results during the Jan. 6 Joint Session of Congress, pending further audits.
In her opinion, Judge Roland wrote that Mr. Eastman knew that the plan he developed to convince Mr. Pence to refuse to certify the results “lacked legitimacy.”
Eastman to Appeal, Attorney Issues Statement
Randy Miller, an attorney for Mr. Eastman, issued a statement on Wednesday expressing confidence that the Review Court would swiftly remedy Judge Roland’s opinion.He stated that his client’s work to assess the legal issues involved in the 2020 election results was “based on reliable legal precedent, prior presidential elections, research of constitutional text, and extensive scholarly material.”
Mr. Miller also criticized the revocation of Mr. Eastman’s law license, given he is still presumed innocent, while he fights charges in Georgia also related to the 2020 elections.
“Any reasonable person can see the inherent unfairness of prohibiting a presumed-innocent defendant from being able to earn the funds needed to pay for the enormous expenses required to defend himself, in the profession in which he has long been licensed. That is not justice and serves no legitimate purpose to protect the public,” the statement read.
The California State Bar alleged that Mr. Eastman acted in violation of the state’s business and professional codes.
The agency accused the attorney of making false and misleading statements that constitute acts of “moral turpitude, dishonesty, and corruption.”
Mr. Eastman allegedly “violated this duty in furtherance of an attempt to usurp the will of the American people and overturn election results for the highest office in the land—an egregious and unprecedented attack on our democracy,” according to the agency.
The California State Bar Court is an administrative arm of the California Supreme Court dedicated to attorney discipline and serves as a regulatory agency.
