Marjorie Taylor Greene laments election-denying lawyer getting what’s coming to him

Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) took a break from her efforts to oust Speaker Mike Johnson this week to stand up for an anti-LGBTQ+ lawyer who once represented Donald Trump and has been accused of conspiring with the former president to overturn the 2020 election.

“John Eastman is a great attorney and loves this country,” she wrote. “He should not lose his law license.”

Related:

Desperate Georgia GOP rams last-minute anti-trans bills through legislature

Failed legislation found its way back into a hateful omnibus package.

John Eastman is a great attorney and loves this country.

He should not lose his law license. https://t.co/ypwaHijZ4O

— Marjorie Taylor Greene 🇺🇸 (@mtgreenee) March 28, 2024

Insights for the LGBTQ+ community

Subscribe to our briefing for insights into how politics impacts the LGBTQ+ community and more.

Daily

Weekly

Good News

Greene was referring to the fact that on Wednesday, a judge recommended Eastman be disbarred in California due to his “exceptionally serious ethical violations.”

Eastman voiced plans to appeal, but his law license will remain inactive throughout the process. Should he lose his appeal, the California Supreme Court will then review the decision.

EAstman is believed to be a key player in Trump’s attempts to overturn the results of the 2020 election, advising former Vice President Mike Pence to refuse to certify the election in violation of the Electoral Count Act.

In August 2023, Eastman was identified as a co-conspirator named in Trump’s Fulton County, Georgia, indictment charging him 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.”

After the court’s decision, Chief Trial Counsel George Cardona released a statement declaring, “The substantial evidence presented over 35 days of trial showed, and the court has now held, that Mr. Eastman abandoned his ethical and legal duties as an attorney to conspire with then-President Donald Trump to develop and implement a strategy to obstruct the counting of electoral votes on January 6, 2021, and illegally disrupt the peaceful transfer of power to President-elect Joseph Biden, knowing that there was no good faith theory or argument to lawfully reject the electoral votes of any state or delay the January 6 electoral count. ”

Cardona emphasized that Eastman’s efforts only failed “because our democratic institutions and those committed to upholding them held strong. The harm caused by Mr. Eastman’s abandonment of his duties as a lawyer, and the threat his actions posed to our democracy, more than warrant his disbarment.”

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.

This is the six-point plan advanced by Trump lawyer John Eastman for VP Pence to overturn the election on January 6th.https://t.co/IkgmEuCW8b pic.twitter.com/CXWTVY1LL7

— Christian Vanderbrouk 🇺🇸🇮🇱🇺🇦 (@UrbanAchievr) September 20, 2021

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 in the certification process beyond counting the votes in the chamber on January 6.

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

Eastman also spoke at the January 6, 2021 “Stop the Steal” rally alongside Trump. During his speech, he falsely stated,  “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.”

Eastman continues to defend himself. His lawyer, Randall Miller, told the Daily Beast that he “maintains that his handling of the legal issues he was asked to assess after November 2020 election was based on reliable legal precedent, prior presidential elections, research of constitutional text, and extensive scholarly material.”

Miller then claimed there was “inherent unfairness” because disbarring Eastman meant he wouldn’t have the money to pay to defend himself in his election fraud case.

Eastman also has a long history of anti-LGBTQ+ activism. He 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.

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.

After Greene defended Eastman, folks on social media berated her for supporting the conspiracy theory that Democrats stole the election from Trump.

“By helping your man Trump perpetuate the 2020 election hoax that Trump won and helped with trying to stop a peaceful transition of power he screwed himself,” one X user wrote. “So, defend away because by this point you should see, people involved in all that are going down. Think about that….your time will come too.”

Here’s Marj, defender of law and rule breakers. Actions have consequences. Ever hear of that? Well Eastman did things that violated the codes of ethics to hold a law license. So basically by helping your man Trump perpetuate the 2020 election hoax that Trump won and helped with…

— Heather P 🇺🇸💙💛 (@aeroladyny) March 28, 2024

“Efforts to overturn election” is the opposite of “loves his country” another user pointed out.

"Efforts to overturn election" is the opposite of "loves his country"

— ᴘᴀʟᴍᴇᴛᴛᴏ ᴘᴀᴛʀɪᴏᴛ 🇺🇸 (@sc_patriot1) March 28, 2024

A third user pointed out Greene’s own alleged role in and support of the Capitol insurrection.

“Surprising that the congresswoman who thinks that insurrectionists found guilty in a court of law are ‘hostages’ also thinks that a lawyer who attempted to overturn a fair election should get to keep being a lawyer. Or maybe it is because she is afraid that justice is going to come for the members of Congress who helped plan the insurrection, helped incite the mob, and who asked for a Presidential pardon days after taking office.”

Surprising that the congresswoman who thinks that insurrectionists found guilty in a court of law are "hostages", also thinks that a lawyer who attempted to overturn a fair election should get to keep being a lawyer.

Or maybe it is because she is afraid that justice is going to…

— Jared Ryan Sears (@JaredRyanSears) March 28, 2024