Former President Donald Trump was indicted Tuesday on allegations he tried to overturn the 2020 presidential election results. Referenced in the federal indictment is John Eastman, a Trump attorney and former visiting scholar of conservative thought and policy at the Bruce D. Benson Center for the Study of Western Civilization at the University of Colorado Boulder.
Though Eastman isn’t mentioned by name, his attorney confirmed to NBC News that he is the person identified as co-conspirator No. 2 in the indictment.
Tuesday’s indictment is one of several criminal cases Trump is facing. See how Eastman factors into the election-related case and what he has done leading up to the new charges.
CU regents call Eastman “an embarrassment” as Jan. 6 committee includes ex-professor in criminal referral
The chair of CU’s Board of Regents called Eastman “an embarrassment” on Dec.19, 2022, and said the elected board respects the ability of the Justice Department to weigh the Jan. 6 committee’s request that the attorney be prosecuted in connection with the Capitol insurrection.
How Colorado’s federal lawmakers reacted to Jan. 6 committee issuing criminal referrals against Trump
The U.S. House of Representatives panel on the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection on Dec. 19, 2022, recommended charges be filed against Trump. The bipartisan group also suggested that Eastman face two charges: conspiracy to defraud the United States and obstructing an official proceeding. Colorado’s Democratic congressional members like U.S. Sen. Michael Bennet praised the panel for showing “that no one is above the law — not even a former president.”
Trump adviser faces possible disbarment over his efforts to overturn 2020 election
Eastman, the architect of a legal strategy aimed at keepinTrump in power, concocted a baseless theory and made false claims of fraud in an attempt to overturn the 2020 election, a prosecutor said in June 2023 in arguing that Eastman be disbarred.
Trump lawyers who fought election results saw Justice Thomas as key
Lawyers who aided Trump’s efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 election regarded an appeal to Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas as “key” to their chances of success, according to emails provided to congressional investigators and made public in November 2022. Among them was Eastman, a former law clerk for Thomas.
Republicans represented by Eastman sue to close Colorado’s primary elections to unaffiliated voters
Eastman was one of the lawyers to file a federal lawsuit on Feb. 24, 2022, on behalf of four then-current or former Republican candidates for office and a GOP party chair, seeking to let parties close their nominating elections again to just party members. A similar suit was filed on July 31, 2023, with a larger backing and under new GOP leadership.
How the Trump fake electors scheme became a “corrupt plan,” according to the indictment
The role that fake slates of electors played in Trump’s desperate effort to cling to power after his defeat in the 2020 election is at the center of a four-count indictment released against the former president Tuesday.
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