Ex-Trump lawyer should be disbarred, judge rules

A judge has recommended that conservative lawyer John Eastman lose his California law licence over his efforts to keep former president Donald Trump in power after the 2020 election.

Eastman, a former personal lawyer to Trump who is his co-defendant in the Georgia criminal case over efforts to sway the election, was accused of violating California ethics rules against misleading courts and making false public statements.

"Eastman's actions were carried out with deceit or dishonesty," Judge Yvette Roland of California's State Bar Court wrote.

She held that his plan to derail Democrat Joe Biden's election victory "was unlawful and lacked any factual or legal support".

Roland presided over a disciplinary trial against Eastman in 2023.

The California Supreme Court has the final say on all disciplinary matters.

Eastman's lawyer Randall Miller said Eastman maintained his work on the 2020 election "was based on reliable legal precedent, prior presidential elections, research of constitutional text and extensive scholarly material".

California state bar trial counsel George Cardona said "the harm caused by Mr Eastman's abandonment of his duties as a lawyer, and the threat his actions posed to our democracy, more than warrant his disbarment".

Eastman was separately indicted in August 2023 in Fulton County, Georgia, and charged along with Trump and others over efforts to overturn Biden's 2020 election win in the state.

Eastman and Trump pleaded not guilty.

A former law professor at Chapman University in California, Eastman drafted legal memos suggesting then-vice-president Mike Pence could refuse to accept electoral votes from several swing states when Congress convened to certify the 2020 vote count.

Pence rebuffed his arguments, saying he did not have legal authority to do so under the constitution.

Trump was also represented by Eastman in a long-shot lawsuit at the US Supreme Court that sought to invalidate votes in four states where the Republican former president had falsely claimed evidence of widespread voter fraud.

Eastman repeated many of those claims at a rally outside the White House on January 6, 2021, after which a mob of Trump supporters stormed the US Capitol and delayed certification of the election.

Other lawyers in Trump's orbit have also faced criminal or ethics actions or both over their 2020 election efforts.

Former New York City mayor Rudy Giuliani had his New York law licence suspended in 2021 and faces potential disbarment in Washington, DC.

Former US Justice Department official Jeffrey Clark faces a disciplinary hearing this week in Washington.

Both men were charged alongside Trump and Eastman in Georgia and have pleaded not guilty.

Reuters with AP