Where Things Stand: Eastman’s Probably A Target

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BOULDER, CO - APRIL 29: John Eastman, the University of Colorado Boulders visiting scholar of conservative thought and policy, speaks about his plans to sue the university at a news conference outside of CU Boulder o... BOULDER, CO - APRIL 29: John Eastman, the University of Colorado Boulders visiting scholar of conservative thought and policy, speaks about his plans to sue the university at a news conference outside of CU Boulder on Thursday, April 29, 2021. CU relieved Eastman of his public duties after he spoke at President Donald Trump's rally preceding the Capitol insurrection on Jan. 6. (Photo by Andy Cross/MediaNews Group/The Denver Post via Getty Images) MORE LESS

August 31, 2022 6:51 p.m.

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In other Trump investigation-adjacent news today, election steal scheming attorney John Eastman’s lawyers think that he is “probably a target” of the Fulton County probe led by District Attorney Fani Willis, who is looking into Trump team efforts to overturn the election results in her state of Georgia.

Eastman was subpoenaed to testify before the Fulton County grand jury earlier this summer alongside Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) and a batch of other Trump Big Lie attorneys — Rudy Giuliani, Jenna Ellis, and Cleta Mitchell. His scheduled testimony was behind closed doors today and Eastman reportedly was advised by his lawyers to plead the fifth “where appropriate,” the New York Times reported.

While other Trump lawyers, like Rudy Guiliani, have been informed that they are targets of Willis’ probe, one of Eastman’s lawyers told the Times that his client hasn’t been identified as a target officially, but that doesn’t mean he won’t be eventually.

“I think he’s probably a target, but I don’t think he’s a legitimate target,” Eastman’s lawyer Harvey Silverglate told the Times. “I don’t think my client is going to be convicted of anything. … If he is indicted, a motion to dismiss will end the case.”

Eastman, as you know, was the guy behind Trump’s obsession with the idea that his vice president could somehow refuse to certify the results of the 2020 election. Mike Pence, of course, didn’t have the authority to do that and didn’t end up playing along with Trump and Eastman’s coup plot — an allegiance to his constitutional duty that Trump rewarded by nearly getting him killed during the insurrection.

But Willis is interested in a different element of Eastman’s election steal scheming, specifically related to efforts to overturn results in Georgia. In December 2020, Eastman appeared before a state Senate panel and spewed out a bunch of lies about election fraud in the state. He was specifically concerned with underaged individuals registering to vote. He claimed without evidence that 60,000-plus people under the age of 18 were allowed to register to vote in Georgia. The Georgia Secretary of State’s office ultimately found that only four people under 18 had registered and were old enough to vote when they did, the Times noted.

But Eastman used those debunked allegations to further push Trump’s efforts to pressure key officials in the state to not certify the 2020 results. And we all know where things culminated there: with Trump’s infamous call to the secretary of state, urging him to “find” the votes needed to subvert the election. That call is now at the heart of Willis’ probe.