On March 27 State Bar Court Judge Yvette Roland, found former Chapman University Law Professor John Eastman culpable of 10 of the disciplinary charges filed by the State Bar’s Office of Chief Trial Counsel or OCTC and recommended that he be disbarred.
Judge Roland ruled that Eastman willfully misrepresented facts in lawsuits he helped file challenging the 2020 election results and acted dishonestly in promoting a “wild theory” that Vice President Mike Pence could unilaterally declare Trump the victor on Jan. 6, 2021, even as “Eastman himself acknowledged that he lacked evidence of outcome-determinative fraud.”
“In sum, Eastman exhibited gross negligence by making false statements about the 2020 election without conducting any meaningful investigation or verification of the information he was relying upon,” Judge Roland found. He recklessly relied on “unverified sources and unverified information while deliberately disregarding credible information about the security of the 2020 election,” and breached “his ethical duty as an attorney to prioritize honesty and integrity.”
The final decision rests with the California Supreme Court. Meanwhile, Eastman is ordered to involuntary inactive status and cannot practice law in California until the Supreme Court rules.
“Every California attorney has the duty to uphold the constitution and the rule of law,” said Chief Trial Counsel George Cardona. “Mr. Eastman repeatedly violated that duty. Worse, he did so in a way that threatened the fundamental principles of our democracy. The substantial evidence presented over 35 days of trial showed, and the court has now held, that Mr. Eastman abandoned his ethical and legal duties as an attorney to conspire with then-President Donald Trump to develop and implement a strategy to obstruct the counting of electoral votes on January 6, 2021, and illegally disrupt the peaceful transfer of power to President-elect Joseph Biden.”