Former Chapman University law school dean John Eastman should be disbarred for trying to help Donald Trump overturn the 2020 presidential election, a State Bar judge ruled Wednesday.
Judge Yvette Roland, who presided over Eastman’s bar trial, said his “lack of remorse and accountability presents a significant risk that Eastman may engage in further unethical conduct, compounding the threat to the public.”
As reported by the San Francisco Chronicle: “Eastman will be placed on ‘inactive status’ as a lawyer when the ruling takes effect next week. He could ask the State Bar Court for a new trial or challenge Roland’s ruling in the state Supreme Court, which has final authority over disbarments.”
In a 128-page decision, the court also recommended that Eastman pay $10,000 in monetary sanctions:
“Specifically, the court recommends that Eastman pay $5,000 in sanctions for his misconduct in connection with filing several pleadings seeking to mislead the courts. The court also recommends that Eastman pay another $5,000, for a total of $10,000, 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 Office of Chief Trial Counsel of the State Bar of California had charged Eastman with 11 counts of misconduct arising from his roles with Trump and the 2020 election.
Eastman was charged with one count of failing to support the Constitution and laws of the United States, two counts of seeking to mislead a court, six counts of moral turpitude by making various misrepresentations and two additional counts of moral turpitude.
The judge found him guilty of 10 counts, dismissing one related to his telling a crowd of protesters at the Ellipse on January 6, 2021, “that fraud had occurred in the election, that dead people had voted, that electronic voting machines had been used to fraudulently alter the election results, that Pence had authority to delay the counting of votes, and that [Vice President] Pence did not deserve to be in office if he did not delay the counting of votes.”
Roland wrote: “Although four of the five statements made at the Ellipse were false and misleading, OCTC failed to provide any evidence that Eastman’s statements “contributed to provoking the crowd to assault and breach the Capitol . . . when such harm was foreseeable.”
“Eastman’s actions were carried out with deceit or dishonesty,” Roland said. She held that his plan to derail Democrat Joe Biden’s election victory “was unlawful and lacked any factual or legal support.”
Lawyers for Eastman and a spokesperson for the California State Bar did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Eastman has defended his legal arguments and statements about the election, saying they were made in good faith.
The Washington-based States United Democracy Center had filed an ethics complaint against Eastman.
The center’s CEO, Joanna Lydgate, said in a statement: “This is a big deal. In the fight to protect democracy and the rule of law, consequences are imperative. When he helped Donald Trump try to overthrow the results of a free and fair election, John Eastman put his personal agenda above the decision of American voters.”
“He broke his oath to uphold the Constitution, and he betrayed the legal profession,” she added. “As a result, a judge has now ruled that John Eastman is ineligible to practice law and put him up for permanent disbarment. These are among the most serious sanctions a lawyer can receive, and John Eastman deserves them.”
Christine Sun, the center’s senior vice president of legal, called the decision “a crucial victory in the effort to hold accountable those who tried to overturn the 2020 election.”
“After hearing from almost two dozen witnesses over a 35-day trial, the court found that John Eastman violated his ethical duties to uphold the constitution,” Sun said. “We are pleased that our ethics complaint helped lay the groundwork for the court’s finding that Eastman should be permanently disbarred. This decision sends an unmistakable message: No one is above the law — not presidents, and not their lawyers.”
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 Orange, 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 U.S. 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 Jan. 6, 2021, after which a mob of Trump supporters stormed the U.S. Capitol and delayed congressional certification of the election.
Several 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 license suspended in June 2021 and is facing potential disbarment in Washington, D.C. Former U.S. Justice Department official Jeffrey Clark is facing a disciplinary hearing this week in Washington, D.C.
Both men were charged alongside Trump and Eastman in Georgia and have pleaded not guilty.
Reuters contributed to this report.