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On August 14, 2023, Donald Trump's former lawyer, John Eastman, was indicted along with 18 other people for allegedly attempting to manipulate the 2020 US election results. According to NPR, Eastman was among several top Trump aides who fought to overturn the election results, claiming that Joe Biden and his associates had rigged them.
As per Forbes, John Eastman's specific role in the scheme included making false claims about voter fraud. Eastman also reportedly attempted to stop Congress from certifying the vote count. Other figures in the indictment include former NYC Mayor Rudy Guliani, attorney Sidney Powell, and campaign lawyer Jenna Ellis.
All there is to know about John Eastman
A native of Lincoln, Nebraska, 62-year-old John Eastman has been involved in politics since 1989. Ballotpedia noted that Eastman was initially a director of Congressional and public affairs at the United States Commission on Civil Rights.
In 1990, he ran for a congressional campaign as a Republican challenger in San Gabriel Valley, losing to Democrat politician Esteban Torres. In 1995, Eastman graduated from Chicago Law School with Juris Doctor, leading to his work as a clerk for Justice Clarence Thomas at the US Supreme Court.
In 2010, John Eastman had another unsuccessful brush with the political world, as Kamala Harris defeated him in the running for California Attorney General. However, he would eventually become an attorney under the Trump administration.
In 2020, Eastman was identified as one of the primary aides involved in attempting to overturn that year's election results. According to CNN, it was during this time that Eastman said that Donald Trump and his associates could reject election results on a State by State basis. On January 2, 2021, Eastman was among several Republicans who joined Donald Trump in publicly alleging voter fraud.
On January 5, 2021, John Eastman reportedly told then Vice President Mike Pence that he could reject election results in individual States. Despite this, Pence did not listen to Eastman, allowing the certification process to progress. However, as claimed by the Associated Press, Eastman's claims about Pence's ability to block certification were supposedly incorrect.
Duncan Carling, an attorney with the State Bar's Office of Chief Trial Counsel, said that the claims made by Eastman and other Trump aides directly instigated the January 6, 2021, Capitol riots.
"Dr. Eastman and President Trump conspired to disrupt the electoral count on January 6," Duncan Carling said.
Greg Jacob, counsel to Mike Pence, agreed with Carling, claiming that Eastman's comments played a direct role in the chaos that occurred at the Capitol building.
"It was apparent to me that the people who marched on the Capitol did so because they believed that there was a momentous decision that was going to decide who was going to be president of the United States to be made in that building that day," Jacob said.
Former US President Donald Trump, who has been indicted for allegedly attempting to manipulate the 2020 election results, has continued to deny all allegations against him. He has maintained that the Capitol riots were an organic response by his supporters rather than a conspiracy directly instigated by him.
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