My legal team has filed our closing argument brief in the California State Bar trial seeking to have me disbarred as a lawyer. This has been a surreal, exhausting battle to defend my integrity and legal actions from an onslaught of false charges leveled by radical leftwing lawyers working with lawfare groups. Tragically, many of these false charges were repeated nearly word-for-word by State Bar prosecutors and form the basis of the Bar’s prosecution against me.
It took months of preparation by me and my legal team to be ready for this trial, which took up an incredible ten weeks of testimony. My legal team has demolished the State Bar’s claim that there was no evidence of fraud or illegality in the 2020 elections. Our team put on a wide array of credible witnesses that, for the first time, laid bare in a courtroom many of the illegal and fraudulent activities that occurred in critical states such as Wisconsin, Georgia, Arizona and Pennsylvania.
It was a constant battle even to present our witnesses as State Bar prosecutors repeatedly objected to evidence we sought to present. Nonetheless, our team did a magnificent job and made a clear and compelling case that my representation of President Trump had a strong factual basis as well as a compelling legal basis under the law and constitution.
The State Bar Court judge has ninety days to publish her decision and put forth any recommendation on discipline she might seek the Bar to impose. But that ruling won’t be the end of the case. The decision can be appealed through the State Bar judicial process, and then it can go to the California Supreme Court and also possibly to the US Supreme Court for final determination.
The Federalist online news outlet recently published an article noting that I will need to raise $3-3.5 million to contend with the lawfare assault being waged against me. Though I have been blessed with over half a million in donations to my legal defense fund, I have already incurred legal costs of three times that amount. I urgently need your help to move forward with my defense.
As excruciating as the State Bar trial has been, this assault on my good name is just one of several high-profile lawfare attacks I am dealing with. In Georgia, prosecutor Fani Willis has asked the criminal court to begin the trial against me, President Trump and others in early August 2024. She estimates that the trial will last 4-5 months. Note the timing of her prosecution seeking as it does to keep President Trump tied up in a courtroom through the November presidential election and forcing defendants like me to raise unfathomable resources to defend myself for the next year +.
The Federalist article made the disturbing but entirely factual observation that “John Eastman has been harassed unceasingly since assisting Trump in 2020 constitutional litigation.” That is the very purpose of lawfare. The radicals desire to make the process so painful and expensive, and the punishment they seek to exact so steep, that no conservative lawyer will ever again challenge the radical left.
The Federalist reported my reaction to this lawfare assault: “The whole premise here is: ‘The government has spoken and you continue to say otherwise. Therefore you must be lying.’”
As difficult as these past months have been, it’s clear to me that what my family and I have endured thus far because I had the courage to assist President Trump bring lawful, substantive allegations of election illegality before courts and appropriate elections officials pales in comparison to what we still face.
If the State Bar judge rules against me and recommends that I be disbarred, I have the right to appeal but my law license will be suspended in the process. This will cripple my ability to earn a living doing what I have loved and excelled at for decades.
Meanwhile, I face a highly-partisan prosecutor in Georgia who is determined to put me in prison for years to come. That’s on top of being named an unindicted co-conspirator in federal prosecutor Jack Smith’s case in Washington against President Trump. And all the while the US Supreme Court is being asked to disbar me from practicing law in federal courts.
They are trying to completely destroy me.
I am categorically innocent of all the charges against me and I am doing everything in my power to defend myself and expose the truth. But an unfortunate component of exposing the truth against a government that has spoken, is that individual power is limited by the sheer size and overwhelming cost of the attacks that have been mobilized against me.
I’m $1 million in the hole already on top of what my legal defense fund has covered, and I need to raise an additional $1 million by February to defend myself in the Georgia prosecution.
My wife and I have worked hard all our lives to earn a middle-class living for our family. We have no way to handle the $3 million+ in legal expenses that this lawfare assault will cost. We’re completely dependent on the generosity of people of good will like you to help.
During this pivotal month of December, I ask you to please make a generous donation to my legal defense fund so that I might erase the deficit that now exists and be in a position to continue my aggressive legal defense as we move into 2024.
If at all possible, please consider making a pledge to contribute an amount of your choosing on a monthly basis. With the Georgia prosecution likely taking up much if not all of 2024, knowing that I can count on your support each month would be a real blessing and source of comfort.
In closing, I ask that you continue to keep me and my family in your prayers. In many ways, what the country is experiencing is a spiritual battle with the forces of evil on the march.
Sincerely,
John Eastman
Constitutional Scholar
Attorney for President Donald Trump