Judge rules John Eastman should be disbarred over efforts to overturn 2020 election 

A California judge on Wednesday recommended disbarring a lawyer at the center of former President Trump’s efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 election. 

State Bar Judge Yvette Roland found John Eastman culpable on 10 of the 11 counts filed by the California State Bar last year. The state bar sought to strip Eastman’s license to practice law in the state over “false and misleading statements” about purported election fraud and his role in “provoking” the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riot.  

“In view of the circumstances surrounding Eastman’s misconduct and balancing the aggravation and mitigation, the court recommends that Eastman be disbarred,” Roland wrote in a 128-page decision. 

Eastman was also ordered to pay $10,000 in monetary sanctions to the State Bar of California Client Security Fund. 

He can appeal Wednesday’s ruling, and the case could ultimately end up before the California Supreme Court. 

Roland’s ruling follows a trial last year that lasted more than 30 days, at which Eastman himself testified. Just before the proceedings concluded in November, the judge found Eastman preliminarily culpable. Roland was appointed by Toni Atkins, a Democrat who at the time was Speaker of the California State Assembly.

Eastman spearheaded the legal strategy attempting to subvert the election results in several key 2020 states, including by using slates of alternate electors to swing the election’s outcome in Trump’s favor. The plan also relied on former Vice President Mike Pence throwing out the real electors for the “fake” ones, with Eastman writing memos that spurred the pressure campaign on Pence. 

Roland wrote in her decision that Eastman exhibited an unwillingness to admit to “any ethical lapses” in his behavior. 

“This lack of remorse and accountability presents a significant risk that Eastman may engage in further unethical conduct, compounding the threat to the public,” the judge wrote. 

Though Roland’s ruling marks a significant legal defeat for Eastman, she did side with him on one of his 11 counts.  

The state bar accused Eastman of moral turpitude over his Jan. 6 Ellipse speech, connecting it to the violence later in the day, but the judge dismissed the count after finding the bar “presented no evidence to show that Eastman’s statements contributed to the assault on the Capitol.”

Eastman described the disbarment proceedings as “Orwellian,” insisting he was fulfilling his ethical duty to zealously represent Trump’s interests and that he had a First Amendment right to make his public statements at Trump’s Jan. 6 rally and elsewhere. 

“This is authoritarianism, not republicanism,” Eastman’s lawyers wrote in court papers following the trial. 

“And Dr. Eastman, in fulfilling his duties to a client, happens to have been thrust to the forefront of the push-back against such authoritarianism, at great expense both in time and treasure to himself,” they continued. “If Dr. Eastman and his client were correct that the 2020 election was stolen – a view they firmly held at the time and continue to hold – then the threat to our system of government is extraordinarily high.” 

The Hill has reached out to Eastman’s legal team for comment. 

The state bar insisted that Eastman was fabricating “an illusion of legality to an illegal effort,” demanding he be disbarred. 

“Every California attorney has the duty to uphold the constitution and the rule of law,” Chief Trial Counsel George Cardona, whose office brought the discipline charges, said in a statement.  

“Mr. Eastman repeatedly violated that duty. Worse, he did so in a way that threatened the fundamental principles of our democracy,” Cardona continued.  

Eastman also faces criminal charges alongside Trump in Georgia, where they and more than a dozen other Trump allies are accused of attempting to overturn the state’s 2020 election results. Eastman has pleaded not guilty to the eight counts he faces. 

Several other lawyers connected to Trump’s 2020 campaign have also faced repercussions for their false claims of election fraud and efforts to swing the election in the former president’s favor. 

Longtime Trump ally Rudy Giuliani had his New York law license suspended in 2021, and a D.C. Bar Association disciplinary panel said in June his license there should be revoked. Ex-Trump lawyer Jenna Ellis was publicly censured in Colorado for her false statements tied to the election, and lawyer Lin Wood retired after the State Bar of Georgia said it would not pursue disciplinary proceedings against him should he do so. 

A disciplinary trial for lawyer Jeffrey Clark, an ex-Justice Department official who helped Trump’s efforts to overturn the election, is also underway. The D.C. Bar’s Board of Professional Responsibility is attempting to strip his law license for using “the authority of the Department of Justice to overturn the election, based on a lie.” 

Eastman also holds a law license in Washington, D.C. 

Updated at 7:45 pm EST.