Trump 2020 Lawyer John Eastman Temporarily Suspended From Practicing Law in Washington, D.C.
WASHINGTON, D.C. — One of the biggest purveyors of the “Big Lie” that the 2020 presidential election was stolen from former President Donald Trump is temporarily banned from practicing law in Washington, D.C.
Trump ally and former attorney John Eastman is “suspended on an interim basis” from practicing law in Washington, D.C., according to a copy of the May 3 order from the District of Columbia Court of Appeals, which also pauses the proceeding pending the resolution of Eastman’s disciplinary case in California.
In March, a judge in California ruled that Eastman should be disbarred for his involvement in Trump’s efforts to overturn the 2020 election results. A search of Eastman’s name on the State Bar of California website shows his current status as, “not eligible to practice law.”
The order is just the latest consequence for Eastman, who faces forgery, conspiracy and other criminal charges in connection with a scheme to subvert the election results in Georgia to keep Trump in power. Trump is also charged in Georgia and is a defendant in a federal indictment filed in connection with the Jan. 6, 2021 insurrection.
According to an April 3 court filing in California, Eastman asked a judge to pause the disbarment order, arguing that it would harm his ability to make a living and impact his defense in the Georgia case. A judge denied the order last week.
Eastman was one of Trump’s closest allies as his campaign used falsehoods to question the legitimacy of the election results, and tried to pressure then-Vice President Mike Pence to subvert the will of the voters by delaying certification, to which Pence refused, according to evidence and testimony from the House Jan. 6 committee hearings held in 2022.
He also tried to push the independent legislature theory — a fringe election law theory stating that only legislatures can regulate federal elections — in an attempt to convince state lawmakers to send fake electors to Congress, according to a strategy outlined in a confidential Jan. 3, 2021, memo that was later made public. Some legislators who allegedly participated in this scheme are currently facing felony charges of their own.
But Eastman isn’t the only Trump attorney hit with both criminal and professional consequences for 2020. Jenna Ellis was also charged in the Georgia indictment, along with fellow lawyer and election denier Sidney Powell, and pleaded guilty to a felony charge of aiding and abetting false statements and writings in October. At her plea hearing she reportedly expressed remorse for her actions, but also implied that she was misled by other attorneys.
In 2022, the States United Democracy Center submitted an ethics complaint against Ellis to the Colorado Supreme Court’s Office of Attorney Regulation Counsel seeking an investigation into Ellis for spreading falsehoods about the 2020 election. In March of 2023, the Colorado Supreme Court issued a public censure of Ellis, who is still licensed to practice in the state, for making a number of “public statements about the November 2020 presidential election that were false.”
Another former Trump attorney Christina Bobb, who represents the Republican National Committee, was among over a dozen individuals charged in an Arizona indictment filed in connection with an election subversion scheme in the state. While Bobb wasn’t initially named in the indictment, Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes (D) announced that she was a defendant.