The Arizona civic organization Davos in the Desert hosted a virtual “Get Trump” lawfare conference all day Tuesday. The conference featured numerous top legal experts, including Trump’s former attorney and constitutional legal scholar John Eastman. It covered the criminal prosecutions, the high-profile civil lawsuits, the two impeachment trials, and lawfare against conservative attorneys.
Eastman, who is being prosecuted in Georgia and Arizona for his work advising and representing Trump on the 2020 election corruption and fighting disbarment in California, discussed the evidence he saw that convinced him there was wrongdoing in the election.
He cited “Zuckerbucks” — enormous contributions from third-party donors like Meta/Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg and his wife Priscilla Chan to largely Democratic election officials. He said these were independent expenditures, illegally donated to election offices in heavily Democratic areas to get out the vote, and funneled through nonprofits. Eastman said multiple laws were violated. He pointed out that the problem is not only the Left targeting conservative attorneys but an “utter failure” to hold people on the Left accountable who clearly “committed crimes.”
Eastman said the Biden administration used an old “mob intimidation statute” that comes with 20 years in prison to coerce the January 6 protesters into taking plea deals for lesser crimes. 18 U.S.C. § 1512(c)(2) prohibits obstruction of an official proceeding of Congress. Eastman said that the law was expanded after the Enron case to include document destruction. The law’s applicability to the January 6 defendants has been challenged, with the Supreme Court expected to issue a ruling shortly.
He said the Left is trampling on multiple constitutional amendments with its lawfare, naming the First, Fourth, Fifth, and Eighth amendments. The excessive fines violate the Eighth Amendment, he said. It states, “Excessive bail shall not be required, nor excessive fines imposed, nor cruel and unusual punishments inflicted.” In Eastman’s case, he said his Fourth Amendment was violated when law enforcement seized his phone without showing him any legal authorization.
Eastman, who said he is not wealthy as a law professor, has spent $1.5 million to $2 million so far on his defense and expects to spend $3 to $4 million ultimately. His GiveSendGo has raised $864,233 of the $1.5 million requested.
Eastman said, “Any illegal vote cancels out a valid legal vote.”
Constitutional attorney Robert Barnes, who hosts the legal podcast Sidebar with Canadian attorney David Freheit, focused some of his talk on Trump’s prosecution by Special Counsel Jack Smith over taking home documents from the White House. Trump argued that, as president, he had the authority to declassify the documents.
Barnes said the president has “sole discretion” over executive power, especially regarding what is kept secret from the American people. The indictment is a “direct attack on Article II” of the Constitution since it subordinates the president to the bureaucracy, he said. Barnes asserted that the only way you can go after a president is through the impeachment process. Otherwise, someone could extort the president by threatening to prosecute him. He added, “What stops a foreign government from prosecuting him,” and a U.S. court extraditing him?
Barnes said the prosecution gathered evidence by “methods that appear to be entrapment.” In both that and Smith’s election case against Trump, he said they “violated attorney-client privilege on a regular basis.” Barnes said prosecutors tried to recruit Trump’s attorneys to go behind his back.
Regarding the prosecution of Trump in New York over the alleged hush money payments to porn star Stormy Daniels, Barnes pointed out that New York Judge Juan Merchan’s family — his daughter — is enriching herself off the trial, while Trump isn’t allowed to talk about it due to the gag order. He said every time Trump defends himself, they say he’s “obstructing justice.” Clients of progressive activist Loren Merchan have raised at least $93 million in campaign donations, using the case in their solicitation emails.
Barnes said Juan Merchan, who he described as “completely insane,” was wrong to require Trump to be present at the trial every day. Defendants have a “right” to be at a proceeding, he said, but not an “obligation.” They only must show up for punishment, such as sentencing.
He said “rogue judges” like Juan Merchan who do outrageous things get away with it since they know they’ll never be disciplined by their superiors, the politicians are with them, so they won’t impeach them, and they’re immune from civil suit. He thinks judicial immunity should be eliminated to hold them accountable.
Barnes criticized judges, “Judges are behaving way outside their constitutional oath.” However, he said impeachment is the only remedy right now. He noted that “judges made up their own immunity,” but they were never given it by Congress. He said the judicial branch is usurping the roles of the legislative and executive branches. He said it is important to take away the judicial branch’s power to write the laws (attorneys’ and judges’ ethics and professional rules) and enforce them.
He said the Washington D.C. court system is so corrupt that he refers to D.C. as the District of Corruption. He said trials should not be held in an area that doesn’t represent the rest of the country. He recommended completely eliminating D.C.’s court system to stop the “venue abuse.”
Arizona criminal defense attorney and podcaster Robert Gouveia focused his talk on Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s prosecution of Trump for the alleged hush money payments to Daniels. Gouveia called it “a historic case in terms of the corruption” and “rigged.” He showed how progressive billionaire George Soros poured money into Bragg’s race to get him elected DA.
Gouveia said “hatchet man” Matthew Colangelo is behind the prosecution, following Trump around with “lawfare encampments.” He noted that federal prosecutors declined to press charges; they performed an inquiry and decided they couldn’t move forward. Even though Bragg is a state prosecutor, he is prosecuting a federal crime, which rarely happens.
Gouveia said Bragg “bootstrapped” an “expired misdemeanor” into a felony. He explained that a false entry in business records is just a misdemeanor, which would have expired; misdemeanors have shorter statutes of limitations. So Bragg tried to “aggravate it to the first degree” by claiming that Trump had “intent to defraud.” They needed some other crime too to get to a felony, he said, but they haven’t said what it was. Gouveia said it could be “intent to conceal.” By doing all that, they could extend the statute of limitations.
Next, Gouveia brought up the bias of Merchan’s daughter, noting she had an image on her X account of Trump in prison. Like Barnes, he said she’s raising money for Democrats on Facebook on the back of her dad trying Trump. Yet Trump can’t even point this out due to the gag order from Merchan, which doesn’t apply to the prosecution or its witnesses.
Gouveia said the prosecution’s key witness David Pecker, a former publisher of gossip magazines, testified that what happened with Trump and the alleged payment to Stormy Daniels was a completely normal business transaction. He said Daniels’ testimony was so awful that the prosecution declined not to call former Playmate Karen McDougal as a witness. McDougal claims she had a lengthy affair with Trump. Gouveia called Daniels an “attention seeker.”
Finally, Gouveia pointed out that Juror No. 2 in the case said he or she is on Truth Social and X. Only one of the jurors needs to acquit Trump for the whole case to fail.
The entire conference can be purchased for $25 at Davos in the Desert.
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Rachel Alexander is a reporter at The Arizona Sun Times and The Star News Network. Follow Rachel on Twitter / X. Email tips to [email protected].
