John Eastman Resigns As Trump-Linked Investigations Expand

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Asked what he based such claims on, he cited a report released last year by Michael J. Gableman, a former Wisconsin judge who was hired, and later fired, by the Republican speaker of the Wisconsin State Assembly. , Robin Vos. The report endorsed a host of debundled claims. He also cited the deeply flawed documentary 2000 Mules, directed by Dinesh DSouza, a conservative activist who once pleaded guilty to felony campaign finance fraud. (Mr. Trump later pardoned him.)

In recent weeks, Mr. Eastman cast himself as a far-right stalwart, signing a letter endorsing dissident Republicans’ ultimately failed efforts to block Representative Kevin McCarthy of California from becoming speaker of the House. Among the other signatories to the letter is Virginia Thomas, the wife of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, for whom Mr. Eastman. In her own testimony to the committee on January 6, Ms. Thomas is Mr. Eastman as an active participant in the clerks of the Thomas group who are in constant contact.

Perhaps Mr. Eastman’s most immediate potential exposure comes in the criminal investigation into election interference in Fulton County, Ga., which covers most of Atlanta. One of the lawyers of Mr. Eastman said last year that his client was a likely target in the inquiry, but his lawyers said this month that he had received no notification that he was one.

Robert Sinners, the Trump campaign’s state director of Election Day operations in Georgia, testified before the committee on Jan. 6 that he was later embarrassed to have participated in the plan orchestrated by Mr. Eastman and Rudolph W. Giuliani, Mr.’s personal attorney. Trump. , to compile falsified records of Trump electors in Georgia and other states that Mr. Trump lost.

I don’t think Rudy Giulianis’ goal is about legal challenges, he said. It’s clear to me that he’s working with people like John Eastman and he wants to force the vice president to accept these voter rolls regardless, without any approval from a governor, without any approval from, you know, the voters or a court, or anything like that.

Clark D. Cunningham, a professor at the Georgia State University College of Law, said in an email that if Sinners’ testimony, or similar testimony, is considered credible, then John Eastman faces a significant risk of persecution.

If Eastman was part of a conspiracy to trick Georgia citizens into signing false election documents, neither his role as a lawyer nor a personal belief that the election results were tainted by fraud could provide— justification for such criminal behavior, he added.

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