The judge overseeing the criminal case against me being prosecuted by Arizona’s Attorney General has issued an order designating it a “complex case.”
On the one hand, it’s a complex case because there are multiple defendants facing multiple criminal charges that the Attorney General alleges worked independently, yet conspiratorially, to “steal” the 2020 presidential election in Arizona on behalf of former President Trump.
On the other hand, while legally complex, this is not a complicated case at all. In fact, at its core, this is a relatively straight-forward case that should be tossed from court at the first opportunity.
First off, I had nothing to do with challenging the election results in Arizona. Nothing. I did not represent President Trump in Arizona. My name is not on any legal filings in that state. I never spoke with any electors in Arizona about President Trump’s challenges. I never had any communications whatsoever with any of the contingent electors in Arizona. In short, I was not engaged in challenging the Arizona election results.
On that basis alone, the case against me should be dismissed. And yet, Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes is proceeding full-speed ahead. Her reckless prosecution has already cost me dearly in legal fees, and now that the case has taken on “complex” status, the legal bills I face will be that much larger and more difficult to handle.
I urgently need your immediate financial support of the John Eastman Legal Defense Fund so that I can fight back against politically-motivated charges from leftwing prosecutors like Kris Mayes. Please be generous.
The second reason that the Arizona case is straight-forward is because it is transparently political, brought by a partisan Democrat who explicitly campaigned for office on the pledge to stop “election deniers,” and promising that she would “prosecute anyone who seeks to interfere with our elections process through fear and intimidation.” Mayes won the closest statewide election in Arizona history – a mere 280 votes out of more than 2.5 million votes cast.
Now she is delivering on her pledge.
It’s become an accepted rule of thumb that when Democrats accuse Republicans of some nefarious behavior, it’s the Democrats who are engaging in that very behavior themselves. In order to “protect democracy,” for example, they tried to prevent voters from being able to vote for President Trump in 2024 by attempting to keep him off the ballot.
In furtherance of this reality, it is AG Kris Mayes who is using “fear and intimidation” to try to punish political opponents. She is prosecuting me and the other defendants in this case because we exercised our constitutional rights to speak out against potential election illegalities and irregularities, in the courts and in the court of public opinion, and because we petitioned government to investigate these concerns.
Those core acts – speech and petition – are at the heart of First Amendment guarantees, and yet Kris Mayes is prosecuting them in Arizona.
That is why my team has filed what is known as an anti-SLAPP motion against Attorney General Kris Mayes. The term “SLAPP” refers to “strategic lawsuit against public participation” and is a forerunner to modern-day lawfare where a powerful party sues an opponent to prevent criticism or protest against something the powerful actor wants to do.
Arizona has a unique anti-SLAPP law that goes beyond private lawsuits to include criminal prosecution. Our motion against AG Mayes shows how she is using the criminal law in Arizona to punish people like me whom she derisively and repeatedly refers to as “election deniers” and whom she explicitly vowed to use her power to prosecute.
Please help me hold Kris Mayes and other leftwing prosecutors and their allies accountable for the “fear and intimidation” they have unleashed against me and my family.
I have already been forced to spend well over $1 million on legal fees to defend myself against the lawfare left who are targeting me. I will need to raise at least an additional $2 million going forward and the designation of the Arizona prosecution as a “complex case” will only add to the burden I am facing.
Your emergency donation to my legal defense fund is urgently needed if I am to have the resources needed to fight. Please consider a donation today of whatever you are able to do – $50, $100, $250, $500, $1,000 or even $1,500 or more.
With your help, we will show the lawfare left that they are not going to get away with using fear and intimidation to stop criticism of their radical agenda. We will continue to speak truth to power, and fight to protect the integrity of our elections, and our judicial system.
Thank you for your prayers, and for any assistance you can provide to my legal defense fund.
Sincerely,
John Eastman
Constitutional Scholar
Attorney for President Donald Trump