John Eastman, the attorney who crafted the legal strategy to overturn the 2020 election, has been disbarred in California. The state Supreme Court upheld the decision Wednesday, ending his ability to practice law in the state and ordering him to pay $5,000 in sanctions.
Eastman's scheme centered on pressuring then-Vice President Mike Pence to reject electors from contested states, a move that would have invalidated Joe Biden's victory. The House January 6 committee revealed in 2022 that Eastman himself acknowledged the plan was legally baseless but pursued it anyway.
His attorney, Randall A. Miller, signaled an appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court, framing the disbarring as a constitutional threat. "The California Supreme Court has allowed to stand a State Bar Court recommendation that we contend departs from long-standing United States Supreme Court precedent protecting First Amendment rights," Miller said, arguing the state bar overstepped its authority in regulating attorney speech.
Eastman faced 11 disciplinary charges stemming from a 2023 ethics investigation. A judge found him culpable on 10 counts in 2024 and recommended disbarment, which the state Supreme Court has now finalized.
Days after the Capitol riot, Eastman had asked Rudy Giuliani, his fellow Trump attorney, to add him to Trump's pardon list. Trump declined at the time but issued a broad wave of pardons last year that included Eastman and Giuliani, among more than 70 others connected to the fake electors scheme. Those federal pardons proved largely symbolic since none of them faced federal charges.
Giuliani, who played a central role in the broader election interference push, has already been disbarred in New York and Washington, D.C. Sidney Powell, another Trump attorney who pleaded guilty in Georgia's election interference case and received a Trump pardon, called Eastman's disbarring "disgusting and so wrong" on social media.
Eastman's legal troubles extended beyond California. Georgia prosecutors charged him alongside Trump and 17 others under the state's racketeering statutes. Both Eastman and Trump pleaded not guilty, but the case dissolved last year when the prosecutor dropped charges against them and the remaining co-defendants.
Author Sarah Mitchell: "Eastman's disbarring signals that state bar associations won't treat election interference as a protected legal opinion, even if federal courts and Trump's pardon pen ultimately shield him from prison time."
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