Another former lawyer for Donald Trump has been officially disbarred.
John Eastman is no longer able to practice law in any part of California, though he can still appeal the decision through the state’s court system.
On Tuesday of this week, Eastman was listed on the website for the State Bar of California as “not eligible to practice law.” That comes a few days following a recommendation from Judge Yvette Roland of the State Bar Court of California that the lawyer’s license to practice law be placed on “involuntary inactive” status.
Disbarment proceedings against Eastman began earlier this year, as the California state bar sought to prevent him from practicing because of his role in leading the efforts to to help Trump overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election.
Among those efforts was a direct appeal that Eastman made to Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas.
But, what Eastman is perhaps most known for is trying to help create fake electors who were pro-Trump in states in which President Joe Biden won. He also spread many falsehoods about alleged election fraud, doing so at the rally held on January 6, 2021, that preceded the Capitol insurrection.
Roland rejected a charge the state bar put forward that the speech that Eastman gave at the rally incited the riot on January 6, she slammed the actions he took that day as “exceptionally serious ethical violations.”
In her ruling, Roland said the “scale and egregiousness of Eastman’s unethical actions far surpasses” that of Donald Segretti, a lawyer who worked for Richard Nixon and helped his reelection campaign attempt to sabotage his Democratic challengers..
The California Supreme Court holds the final decision on disbarments, which means that Eastman still has the opportunity to regain his credentials to practice law in the state, if he chooses to appeal this decision.
Eastman has made plenty of headlines for the wrong reasons in recent years. He questioned the citizenship status of Vice President Kamala Harris at one point, arguing she could be ineligible to be a vice president because she wasn’t a citizen of the U.S. at birth.
He took his argument one step further, claiming that birthright citizenship might not even be constitutional.
Other former Trump lawyers could soon see their licenses to practice law removed as well. An ethics board in Washington, D.C., is considering whether Rudy Giuliani should be disbarred for his actions related to helping Trump overturn the 2020 election.
Sidney Powell also may face disbarment after she pleaded guilty in October to six different misdemeanor counts regarding her actions in the 2020 election in the state of Georgia.
The fact that Eastman is now disbarred could be bad news for Trump himself. That’s because one of the defenses that the former president’s legal team is making in his criminal trial over the January 6 riot is that he was relying on advice that Eastman gave him.
That defense, known as “advice-of-counsel,” ultimately could absolve the former president of any criminal intent that would be necessary for his conviction. Now, that Eastman is disbarred, though, that defense might not prove fruitful.
