Lawyer John Eastman speaks subsequent to U.S. President Donald Trump’s private legal professional Rudy Giuliani, as Trump supporters collect forward of the president’s speech to contest the certification by the U.S. Congress of the outcomes of the 2020 U.S. presidential election on the Ellipse in Washington, U.S, January 6, 2021. REUTERS/Jim… Acquire Licensing Rights
Oct 20 (Reuters) – A former decide on a U.S. federal appeals court docket and California’s highest court docket vouched on Friday for the character of Donald Trump’s ex-personal lawyer John Eastman throughout his disciplinary trial in California.
Janice Rogers Brown, who served on the U.S. Courtroom of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit from 2005 to 2017, described Eastman as “very cautious and meticulous,” and keen to interact with opposing views.
“I don’t at all times agree with him, however he at all times has assist for the arguments that he’s making,” Brown testified. However she added that she has by no means labored with Eastman, nor did he ever seem earlier than her as a decide.
Previous to her appointment to the D.C. Circuit by President George W. Bush, Brown was an affiliate justice on the California Supreme Courtroom.
The State Bar of California is looking for to strip Eastman of his legislation license, arguing that his efforts to overturn Democrat Joe Biden’s victory over former Republican president Trump in the course of the 2020 presidential election was unsupported by legislation or precedent and ran opposite to U.S. values.
Brown’s testimony as a personality witness for Eastman comes close to the tail finish of his California State Bar Courtroom disciplinary trial, which has spanned 5 months.
The court docket is predicted to listen to closing arguments from Eastman’s attorneys and prosecutors from the State Bar of California in both late October or early November.
Eastman, a former legislation professor at Chapman College in California, drafted authorized memos suggesting then-Vice President Mike Pence might refuse to simply accept electoral votes for Biden from a number of swing states when Congress convened to certify the 2020 vote depend. Pence rebuffed his arguments, saying he didn’t have authorized authority.
All through the trial, Eastman has regularly defended his actions, arguing that his authorized theories have been viable and superior in good religion.
Eastman had beforehand tried to faucet Brown as an knowledgeable witness who would argue that the state bar’s prices towards him have been unprecedented. Nevertheless, Choose Yvette Roland of the California State Bar Courtroom rejected Eastman’s bid in Might.
Brown, now a lecturer on the College of California at Berkeley College of Legislation, was as an alternative known as by Eastman’s authorized workforce as considered one of a handful of character witness.
Eastman is individually considered one of 18 Trump allies who have been criminally charged in August together with the previous president with violating racketeering and different legal guidelines of their efforts to problem the 2020 election leads to Georgia.
Two different attorneys who have been charged alongside Eastman — Kenneth Chesebro and Sidney Powell — each pleaded responsible to prison prices in Fulton County this week.
Learn Extra:
One other Trump lawyer reaches plea cope with Georgia prosecutors
Ex-Trump lawyer Sidney Powell pleads responsible, might testify in Georgia case
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Reporting by David Thomas
Our Requirements: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
