Indictment reveals anti-LGBTQ+ lawyer John Eastman as Trump’s co-conspirator

Anti-LGBTQ+ activist John Eastman has been identified as one of the six co-conspirators named in the recent indictment of former President Donald Trump. The indictment charges Trump with four counts related to trying to overturn the 2020 presidential election.

Eastman, who served as chairman of the board for the anti-LGBTQ+ group the National Organization for Marriage (NOM), is described in the 45-page indictment as “co-conspirator 2” and “an attorney who devised and attempted to implement a strategy to leverage the Vice President [Mike Pence]’s ceremonial role overseeing the certification proceeding to obstruct the certification of the presidential election.”

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Eastman became NOM’s board chairman in 2011 and compared marriage equality to slavery in 2014, saying that courts had “illegitimately” decided on the issue and that voters should decide instead. He also tried to get NOM to defend several states’ same-sex marriage bans in courts, though a federal judge ruled that NOM lacked the legal standing to do so.

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He has supported Uganda’s criminalization of homosexuality, called homosexuality an indicator of “barbarism,” has called same-sex marriage “evil” and “despotic,” and has claimed that the LGBTQ+ equality movement promotes pedophilia, according to Right Wing Watch.

Eastman’s plan to overturn the election drawn out of “thin air”

Eastman’s plan to overturn the election was a two-page memorandum outlining a six-step plan for Pence to follow. The plan involved Pence throwing out the election results in seven states where Trump allies had claimed to be “alternate electors” willing to vote for him in the Electoral College. In reality, these allies had no legal authority to claim themselves as electors.

If Pence had done this, Trump would have led Biden in electoral votes 232 votes to 222. Eastman then wanted Pence to declare Trump as the winner because neither candidate had reached 270 votes in the Electoral College, CNN explained.

When Democrats protested, Pence could then let the House of Representatives decide in a process that would’ve given each state legislature one vote to decide the president. “Since Republicans controlled 26 state delegations,” CNN wrote, “a majority could vote for Trump to win the election.”

“The main thing here is that Pence should do this without asking for permission – either from a vote of the joint session or from the Court,” Eastman wrote in his memo. “The fact is that the Constitution assigns this power to the Vice President as the ultimate arbiter. We should take all of our actions with that in mind.”

Eastman reportedly sent the memo to Sen. Mike Lee (R-UT) and Trump attorney Rudy Giuliani with the hopes that both men could convince Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) of widespread election fraud, according to Peril, a 2021 non-fiction recount of the last days of Trump’s presidency written by Washington Post journalists Bob Woodward and Robert Costa. However, both Lee and Graham rejected Eastman’s plan.

Trump reportedly told Pence, “You really need to listen to John. He’s a respected constitutional scholar. Hear him out.”

But Pence decided against following Eastman’s plan after consulting with the Senate parliamentarian. The parliamentarian, whose role is to interpret Senate rules and procedures, told Pence that he had no authority to certify the election’s results beyond counting the votes in the chamber on January 6.

Woodward and Costa wrote in their book, “Lee’s head was spinning. No such procedure existed in the Constitution, any law, or past practice. Eastman had apparently drawn it out of thin air.”

Eastman’s role in the deadly January 6 Capitol riots

The 45-page indictment alleges that Eastman also called Arizona State House Speaker Russell Bowers (R) to decertify the state’s legitimate electors for Biden and “let the courts sort it out.” Bowers refused.

Eastman also spoke at the January 6, 2021 “Stop the Steal” rally alongside Trump, Trump’s attorney Rudy Giuliani, and others. At the rally, Eastman falsely said, “We know there was fraud. We know that dead people voted…. Anybody that is not willing to stand up to [declare Trump as the winner] does not deserve to be in the office. It is that simple.”

After the rally, Trump’s followers rioted at the U.S. Capitol. Five people died because of the insurrection and roughly 140 police officers were injured. The injuries included a broken spine, a lost eye, lost fingers, brain damage, and multiple cases of PTSD. While ransacking the Capitol, the rioters chanted “Hang Mike Pence,” shattered windows while trying to access congressional chambers, smeared feces in a hallway, and stole computer equipment, potentially constituting a national security breach.

Eastman sought a presidential pardon before Trump left office and is facing disciplinary proceedings from California’s State Bar Court which could revoke his law license for his role in the attempt to overturn the election. Eastman retired from his role at Chapman University in 2021 after fellow faculty members complained about his attempts to overturn the election. Eastman invoked his Fifth Amendment rights against self-incrimination 146 times when questioned by the U.S. House Select Committee on the January 6 Attack.

Harvey Silverglate, one of Eastman’s attorneys, told The Hill, “If you look closely at what Eastman did, it is not a crime. He acted as a lawyer coming up with far-out theories. That’s our duty. The Constitution gives people a right to effective representation of counsel.”

Silverglate’s claim echoes that of Trump’s defenders who say that Trump was allowed by the First Amendment’s free speech protections to make untrue statements about the election, whether he honestly believed them or not.

However, the indictment charges Trump with conspiracies to defraud the United States, to obstruct an official proceeding, and to violate civil rights by denying the American people’s votes. That is, Trump’s lies may be part of the obstruction, but they’re just one part of a larger conspiracy that likely violated federal and Constitutional law because they were attempts to change an election’s outcome after the fact.

Another of Eastman’s attorneys, Charles Burnham, told CNN, “The fact is, if Dr. Eastman is indicted, he will go to trial. If convicted, he will appeal. The Eastman legal team is confident of its legal position in this matter.”