California supreme court upholds lower court decision as Eastman says he will appeal to US supreme court
John Eastman, a lawyer who played a key role in Donald Trump’s efforts to subvert the 2020 election, officially lost his law license in California on Wednesday.
The California supreme court upheld a 2024 ruling from a state judge, who recommended Eastman be disbarred. Eastman “exhibited gross negligence by making false statements about the 2020 election without conducting any meaningful investigation or verification of the information he was relying upon”, Judge Yvette Roland wrote in 2024.
The state supreme court court denied Eastman’s request to review that decision on Thursday and said he was “disbarred from the practice of law in California” and ordered his name “stricken from the roll of attorneys”. He was also ordered to pay $5,000 to the state bar.
Eastman, a former clerk of Clarence Thomas, was a key architect of the fake elector theory that Trump and allies tried to deploy to overturn the election results. Eastman and other Trump lawyers repeatedly made false claims of voter fraud to try to bolster their case.
“Eastman played a central role in the plot to overturn the 2020 election – pressuring state officials, advancing baseless claims in court, and promoting a fringe theory that the vice-president could reject certified electoral votes. His unethical actions have had real, lasting consequences for our democracy, and we applaud the California supreme court’s...
WASHINGTON, April 23 (Reuters) – President Donald Trump’s years-long campaign to undermine faith in U.S. elections has gained broad traction with the American public, a Reuters/Ipsos poll shows, p...