A federal judge ruled Monday that former President Donald Trump and lawyer John Eastman "more likely than not" committed crimes in their efforts to obstruct the certification of President Joe Biden's victory in the 2020 election.
The extraordinary ruling by U.S. District Court Judge David Carter ordered Eastman to turn over 101 emails to the Jan. 6 Select Committee. Eastman, who had argued that the emails were protected by attorney-client privilege, formulated a legal strategy to keep Trump in office, and pressured former Vice President Mike Pence to reject the Electoral College count showing Trump had lost to Biden.
In a blistering 44-page ruling, Carter lays out a meticulous timeline of Trump's efforts to convince elected officials and the public of his bogus claim that his loss to Biden was attributable to election fraud. The ruling, which can still be appealed to the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals and the U.S. Supreme Court, will no doubt raise expectations on Attorney General Merrick Garland to launch a Justice Department investigation of the former president that could result in criminal charges.
"President Trump and Dr. Eastman justified the plan with allegations of election fraud — but President Trump likely knew the justification was baseless, and therefore that the entire plan was unlawful," Carter wrote.
Carter was especially critical of the legal justification used by Trump and Eastman to challenge the 2020 election results, and noted the mountain of evidence that showed the election had not been marred by fraud that had any bearing on the outcome.
