The California Supreme Court on Wednesday ordered the lawyer John Eastman disbarred for his role in seeking to overturn the 2020 election in favor of Donald J. Trump.
Mr. Eastman had concocted a legal strategy to put forward fake electors for Mr. Trump in several swing states that the candidate had lost in order to have Congress block or delay certification of Joseph R. Biden Jr.’s victory on Jan. 6, 2021.
He also promoted what a lower court judge called a “wild theory” that Mike Pence, Trump’s vice president, could unilaterally declare Mr. Trump the victor during a certification proceeding that day. Since then, Mr. Eastman has insisted that the 2020 election was stolen, that he did nothing wrong and that he was simply representing Mr. Trump.
On Wednesday, the court ordered Mr. Eastman’s name “stricken from the roll of attorneys.” He was also asked to pay $5,000 to the State Bar of California.
In a statement, George Cardona, chief trial counsel for the State Bar of California, said the court’s decision “affirms the fundamental principle that attorneys must act with honesty and uphold the rule of law.”
“The Court’s order underscores that Mr. Eastman’s misconduct was incompatible with the standards of integrity required of every California attorney,” he added.
Randall Miller, a lawyer representing Mr. Eastman, said he and Mr. Eastman disagree with the decision because it “raises pivotal constitutional concerns regarding the limits of state regulation of attorney speech.” He added that he plans to ask the U.S. Supreme Court “to repudiate this threat to the rule of law and our nation’s adversarial system of justice.”
In March 2024, a California judge recommended that Mr. Eastman be stripped of his law license, finding that he had violated professional ethics rules by making false statements about the 2020 election.
In her ruling, the judge, Yvette Roland, said Mr. Eastman had “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.”
Since then, Mr. Eastman had been suspended from practicing law in California as his case went through the appeal process. His license was also suspended in Washington, D.C., in a separate proceeding.
Bar officials across the country have been trying to seek accountability against a group of lawyers, among them Mr. Eastman, who pushed false claims of election fraud and tried to help Mr. Trump stay in office after he lost the 2020 election.
Rudolph W. Giuliani, another lawyer who helped Mr. Trump’s efforts to reverse his electoral defeat, was disbarred in New York in 2024. Later that year, he lost his license in Washington, D.C., as well.
Another lawyer, Jeffrey Clark, was recommended for disbarment last year by a Washington disciplinary board. He has appealed the recommendation.
On Wednesday, Mr. Clark called the California court’s ruling in Mr. Eastman’s case “a travesty” and said he is hopeful the Supreme Court reverses the decision.
Mr. Trump last year issued a sweeping federal pardon for several lawyers involved in efforts to overturn the 2020 election, but they were largely symbolic, since those people were not facing federal charges.
Pooja Salhotra covers breaking news across the United States.
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