John “Serpent-in-the-Ear-of-the-President” Eastman defends himself against a litany of withering charges from the California Bar — moral turpitude, dishonesty and/or corruption, willful misconduct and/or gross negligence, trying to reverse the legitimate results of an election, essentially yelling “Fire!” in a crowded theater — in a riveting 112-page defense that seeks to protect his law license.
It was not unreasonable for Eastman to believe there was massive fraud and illegality in the 2020 election and file lawsuits to try to rectify it, he argues.
He was not advocating that former President Donald Trump or former Vice President Mike Pence take any particular course of action in the infamous “coup memos,” but simply laying out possible scenarios.
And the incendiary claims he made before an agitated crowd on Jan. 6 — “We know there was fraud. …We know that dead people voted” — is a matter of free speech, sanctified and protected by the First Amendment.
“American Citizens have the right to question illegality and fraud in the conduct of their elections, and … his intent in making those statements was to expose such illegality and fraud, as was his constitutional right under the First Amendment,” Eastman’s response says. He “DENIES that his statements were false or misleading, or that he knew or was grossly negligent in not knowing that they were false or misleading.”
Eastman’s exhaustive response catalogs, with footnotes and links, just about every conspiracy theory floated over the past two years. His law license remains active as the Bar presses its case against him, he’s still a Senior Fellow at the conservative Claremont Institute and his Constitutional Counsel Group still lists an Anaheim address.
But his GiveSendGo fundraiser seeks $500,000 for his legal defense fund — more than double its original goal of $200,000 — and has raised $313,000 to date. “The left is pure evil out to destroy all that is…
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