Judge smacks down 'threat to the public' John Eastman's bid to restore his law license
John Eastman, the one-time Trump lawyer infamous for writing the so-called "coup memo" that claimed former Vice President Mike Pence had the power to unilaterally throw away certified election results, lost his bid to have his law license restored this week.
As CNN reports, Judge Yvette Roland rejected Eastman's request that his law license be reinstated until the California Supreme Court makes the decision on whether to disbar him.
In rejecting Eastman's plea, Roland contended that the MAGA lawyer had failed to show that he "no longer presents a threat to the public," as she contended he did when he was advancing widely criticized legal maneuvers giving the vice president powers to determine the winner of an election in which he directly stood to benefit from the outcome.
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"The court’s decision determined that Eastman made deceptive and misleading claims in legal documents, public forums, and other contexts concerning the 2020 presidential election and the extent of Vice President Michael R. Pence’s authority to override the electoral process," Roland argued, while also emphasizing that she had earlier determined that "disbarment was the appropriate sanction for Eastman’s misconduct in part to safeguard the public."
Eastman had claimed the need to be able to practice law to make a living, and he said he was representing Reps. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) and Matt Gaetz (R-FL) in a case that had implications for freedom of speech.
In Roland's original opinion supporting Eastman's disbarment, she concluded that he "failed to uphold his primary duty of honesty and breached his ethical obligations by presenting falsehoods to bolster his legal arguments" and that he "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."