The State Bar in California on Thursday levied disciplinary charges against attorney John Eastman for his efforts to help former President Trump overturn the results of the 2020 Presidential election.
The charges could ultimately lead to Eastman’s disbarment.
The State Bar’s chief trial counsel, George Cardona, said in a statement that 11 charges stem from allegations that Eastman assisted Trump in a strategy to overturn the election’s results by obstructing the electoral college vote count.
Eastman, the former dean of Chapman University law school in Southern California, wrote two memos that outlined strategies for reversing President Biden’s victory in November 2020. One argued that then-Vice President Pence could keep Trump in power by overturning the results of the election during the January 6, 2021 joint session of Congress that would convene to count the electoral votes. Another encouraged states to certify Trump’s loss as a victory.
The State Bar said Eastman faces charges that he violated the business and professions code by making false and misleading statements that constitute acts of “moral turpitude, dishonesty, and corruption.”
Eastman has been a member of the California Bar since 1997, according to its website.
During its last meeting on December 19, the House Select Committee that investigated the January 6, 2021 insurrection criminally referred Eastman to the DOJ for obstruction of an official proceeding and conspiracy to defraud the United States. That was along with four separate criminal referrals the Committee made related to Trump.
