Column: Trump’s Federal Deflection Shield puzzles some, as it cannot protect Eastman from state charges or losing his law license
Some say the U.S. Constitution is turning over in its grave.
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Trump’s pardon of the man who critics dubbed “the architect of a coup” — former Chapman University law dean John Eastman — is just the latest example of how the rule of law doesn’t rule much anymore, said critics who sink further into despair with each passing day.
Eastman is not out of the legal woods — more on that in a minute — but his passionate defenders see this as vindication. They’ve poured close to $1 million from their own patriotic pockets to pay Eastman’s myriad legal bills, even employing the rhetoric of holy war from time to time, beseeching the Heavenly Father to defeat the “demon enemy” of Eastman.
“I will never forget Dr. Eastman’s encouraging words to me as a charged 2020 Trump elector,” wrote Marian Sheridan, who donated $100 to Eastman, last month. “All lawfare charges against us were dismissed by a Democrat appointed judge on September 9th. I praise God for protecting us in the furnace and pray that doctor Eastman’s persecution ends soon.”
“You are a true patriot,” wrote another recent donor.
And so Eastman joins the ranks of the (federally) absolved, along with the likes of David Dempsey, who “viciously assaulted and injured police officers” on Jan. 6, 2021, and Julian Khater, who pepper-sprayed officers and pleaded guilty to two counts of assaulting police with a dangerous weapon. (These were not Subway sandwiches.) But Dempsey and Khater got their pardons long before Eastman did. It was more than four years ago that Eastman pointedly asked (also-newly-absolved) Trump attorney Rudy Giuliani for a spot on the “pardon list” … and heard crickets.
“Not every Republican lawyer who was engaged in the Trump transition issues deserves broad brush scorn, disbarment or criminal prosecution, for sure. But Eastman was quite different,” said attorney James V. Lacy of Wewer & Lacy LLP, whose conservative bona fides include serving in the Reagan and Bush administrations and as a Trump delegate in 2016. “Trump was entitled to ask questions and receive legal advice.
He not only concocted a crazy unconstitutional legal theory on the transfer of Presidential power, a theory that had been rejected by even John Yoo, his own expert witness at his disbarment trial, but Eastman went further than just rendering what has been seen as a flawed opinion.
“According to the State Bar, he was also a highly active participant in the discredited events, speaking crazy talk about ‘hidden folders’ in voting machines to rile up the crowd at the ‘Stop the Steal’ rally, and including testifying inaccurately to the Georgia Legislature and advising others on the filing of false state electoral certification documents. This later issue is why he continues to be under criminal indictment in Georgia, where Trump’s pardon has no legal affect.”
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