Former President Donald Trump’s former attorney and constitutional legal scholar, John Eastman, was arrested, booked, and arraigned Friday in Phoenix over his role in the 2020 election. Democratic Attorney General Kris Mayes brought charges and secured indictments in April against him, Arizona’s alternate Republican slate of electors, and a few others, including Rudy Giuliani and Trump’s former Chief of Staff Mark Meadows.
Trump is an unindicted co-conspirator.
Eastman, who voluntarily surrendered to arrest, pleaded not guilty to conspiracy, fraud, forgery, and related felony charges. The indictment, which was initially released without his name and a few of the others since they had not been served yet, accused him of pressuring the Arizona Legislature to “change the results of the election.” It said he “encouraged the Republican electors to vote on December 14, 2020, and spread false claims of widespread election fraud.” Additionally, it said he attempted to convince Vice President Mike Pence to “reject or at least delay the confirmation of the lawfully chosen electors.”
Eastman provided a statement outside the courthouse after the arraignment.
“These charges should’ve never been brought. I pled not guilty. I had zero communications with the electors in Arizona. Zero involvement in any of the election litigation in Arizona or legislative hearings. I’m confident that if the law is faithfully applied I will be fully exonerated at the end of this process,” he said.
Pro-Trump lawyer John Eastman pleads ‘not guilty’ to Arizona charges⁰Many of the other 17 Trump allies who are accused of trying to overturn the state’s election results are expected to be arraigned next week. https://t.co/HT3BMY77rd pic.twitter.com/lgywq3pTJv
— Yvonne Wingett Sanchez (@yvonnewingett) May 17, 2024
After the press conference, a reporter asked him, “Can you tell voters why they were in jeopardy of losing 1.7 million votes because of your legal theory?” Eastman responded, “That’s a pretty skewed question; I won’t answer it.”
Eastman is the first of the indicted defendants to be arraigned. Most of the others are scheduled to be arraigned on May 21, including nine of the 11 alternate electors. Meadows is scheduled to be arraigned on June 7. Prosecutors have been unable to serve Giuliani.
Eastman also pleaded not guilty to Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis’s RICO prosecution.
California disciplinary court judge Yvette Roland, who funneled donations to a Democratic SuperPAC that fights against election integrity, said she disbarred Eastman primarily for advising Trump of various options for dealing with the election illegalities.
Eastman’s disbarment trial lasted over 30 days. It included testimony from some of the country’s leading experts on election integrity, including physicist and auditor John Droz, retired IT professional Garland Favorito of VoterGA, retired Department of Defense analyst Ray Blehar, and former Wisconsin Supreme Court Justice Michael Gableman. They discussed many instances of laws being violated, with Favorito listing instances of election fraud.
Berkeley constitutional law professor John Yoo, considered one of the country’s leading constitutional law experts, testified extensively about how the vice president historically had substantive authority over whether to accept electoral slates. He said he’d only encountered one other legal expert who disagreed and reviewed historical examples where the vice president had exercised that power.
Eastman is appealing the disbarment. Four other states have charged alternate slates of Republican electors with fraud, forgery, and conspiracy, which are class 2, 4, and 5 felonies, respectively.
In addition to Eastman, the defendants whose names were initially redacted from the indictment since they had not been served when it was first published are Boris Epshteyn, Christina Bobb, Jenna Ellis, and Michael Roman.
The alternate electors in Arizona named as defendants are:
- Kelli Ward
- Michael Ward
- Nancy Cottle
- Loraine B. Pellegrino
- Tyler Bowyer
- Jake Hoffman
- Anthony T. Kern
- James Lamon
- Robert Montgomery
- Samuel I. Moorhead
- Greg Safsten
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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].
Photo “John Eastman” by Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office.
