The California Supreme Court ordered attorney and former law school dean John Eastman disbarred on Wednesday for his role aiding the Trump administrationโs attempt to overturn the 2020 election.
The court ordered Eastmanโs name be โstricken from the roll of attorneysโ and that he pay $5,000 to the State Bar of California.
Eastmanโs attorney, Randall A. Miller, told the Associated Press that the courtโs decision โdeparts from long-standing United States Supreme Court precedent protecting First Amendment rights, especially in the attorney discipline context.โ Miller did not immediately return an after-hours phone call seeking comment from The Times.
State Bar Chief Trial Counsel George Cardona said in a statement that the ruling โunderscores that Mr. Eastmanโs misconduct was incompatible with the standards of integrity required of every California attorney.โ
โTodayโs California Supreme Court order disbarring John Charles Eastman from the practice of law in California affirms the fundamental principle that attorneys must act with honesty and uphold the rule of law, regardless of the client they represent or the context in which that representation occurs,โ said Cardona said.
The Supreme Courtโs decision affirms a 2024 ruling from State Bar Judge Yvette Roland that Eastman be prohibited from practicing law.
In a marathon trial that lasted off and on from June to November 2024, the State Bar, which regulates lawyers in California, argued that Eastman was unfit to practice law for peddling bogus claims that fraud cost Trump the election and for promoting a fake-elector scheme to block the electoral count.
โIt is true that an attorney has a duty to engage in zealous advocacy on behalf of a client,โ Roland wrote in 2024 in a 128-page ruling. โHowever, Eastmanโs inaccurate assertions were lies that cannot be justified as zealous advocacy.โ
Roland found Eastman culpable of 10 of 11 counts of misconduct.
Eastman fomented โpredictable and destructive chaosโ when he stood beside fellow Trump adviser Rudolph W. Giuliani on Jan. 6, 2021, and told an enormous crowd at the Ellipse that the election had been fraudulent, the bar argued.
Eastman claimed he was acting in good faith, and as a vigorous champion of his client. But State Bar attorneys argued that โthe evidence, including his often not-credible trial testimony, shows that he held โ and still holds โ truth and democracy in contempt.โ
Despite Eastmanโs repeated assertions that Joe Bidenโs victory was illegal, Roland ruled, Eastmanโs own words showed he knew that proof was lacking.
The judge cited an email that Eastman sent to a friend, Cleta Mitchell, on Nov. 29, 2020, acknowledging that fraud serious enough to sway the results could not be proved.
โIt would be nice to have actually hard documented evidence of the fraud in the areas to which the analyses pointed,โ Eastman wrote.
After the 2024 ruling Eastman responded on his Substack writing that he hoped the California Supreme Court or U.S. Supreme Court would โstep in to put a stop to this lawfare that has become a serious threat to the First Amendment, the right of controversial clients and causes to legal representation, and more broadly to our adversarial system of justice.โ
Eastman has a long history in Californiaโs conservative legal circles. He was hired by Chapmanโs law school in 1999 and was dean from June 2007 to January 2010, then continued to teach courses in constitutional law, property law, legal history and the 1st Amendment.
He retired in early 2021 after more than 100 Chapman faculty and others affiliated with the university signed a letter calling on the school to take action against him for his role in the Jan. 6 insurrection.
Wednesdayโs decision is a bookend in a lengthy investigation into Eastmanโs actions that began in 2021. In October of that year, the nonpartisan legal group States United Democracy Center filed an ethics complaint calling on the State Bar to investigate Eastmanโs Jan. 6 actions.
Christine P. Sun, senior vice president of legal at the States United Democracy Center, said on Wednesday that the courtโs decision is โpart of a broader reckoning for those who seek to undermine the rule of law.โ
โEastman played a central role in the plot to overturn the 2020 electionโpressuring state officials, advancing baseless claims in court, and promoting a fringe theory that the vice president could reject certified electoral votes,โ Sun said in a statement. โHis unethical actions have had real, lasting consequences for our democracy, and we applaud the California Supreme Courtโs decision to disbar him.โ
Staff writer Christopher Goffard contributed to this report
