Eastman Character Witnesses Praise Him as Man of Integrity

A Trinity Law professor and former law student of John Eastman praised her former law professor as a “very good man who has impeccable moral character, integrity.”

“I think he’s a brilliant, amazing, genius constitutional scholar” who is a “stickler for detail, the rule of law, and being honest and being very candid,” said Laurie Stewart, who is CEO of Peacemaker Ministries, a Christian alternative dispute resolution organization.

Stewart is an adjunct professor at Trinity Law School of Trinity International University. The Orange County-based school follows the Evangelical Free Church of Americadoctrine. Stewart and retired Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Philip Mautino testified Thursday as character witnesses in Eastman’s California State Bar Court trial on charges of violating state ethical and statutory requirements for lawyers.

Eastman, who the Trump White House tapped for post-election legal work, has argued he was advising a client and the bar is attempting to punish him for taking unpopular positions on behalf of clients. He’s testified that his remarks on Jan. 6 ahead of the attack on the US Capitol didn’t rise to imminent harm.

Mautino, a 30-year friend, said Eastman “always was very principled, and if he took heat for some of his viewpoints, he would just withstand the heat. He always kept to his principles.”

Eastman has a 130-page resume with hundreds of speaking engagements, articles, and briefs, said Mautino, who worked on Eastman’s unsuccessful congressional campaign in 1990. He’s a “good Christian, married man for many years, has two nice children,” the former judge said.

The state bar has rested its case against Eastman. Defense witnesses have tried to lay out the basis for Eastman’s conclusions there were election irregularities that cost Donald Trump a second term in the White House.

Among the character witnesses scheduled Friday is retired D.C. Circuit Judge Janice Rogers Brown, a former California Supreme Court justice who now is a fellow at University of California Berkeley Law School.

Long Trial

The bar seeks to disbar Eastman based on 11 counts of violating ethics rules and state law regulating lawyer conduct as well as moral turpitude related to memos he wrote to Trump campaign officials, statements made in court filings, media appearances, and a published article about the election, and for remarks ahead of the storming of the Capitol.

Eastman repeatedly said he believes there were unlawful actions in the 2020 presidential election taken by state actors absent legislative approval that call into question the legitimacy of the election. Hetestified he argued to Vice President Mike Pence in the days leading up to the riot that a delay in counting the electoral votes was needed to allow state legislatures to assess claims of illegality to determine whether the slate of electors accurately reflected who won the election.

“He’s a zealous advocate for his ideas and he has the legal basis for his ideas,” said Stewart, a 2003 Chapman University law school graduate who helped Eastman supervise some Blackstone Legal Fellowship scholars to train Christian students in legal theory and practice.

Eastman was dean of Chapman’s Fowler School of Law from 2007 through 2010, when he unsuccessfully ran for California attorney general. He returned to the stand Thursday and said on direct examination from defense counsel Randall Miller that it “was not my choice” to be dean but he stepped in when the successful search candidate got a better job offer. Eastman said during his three-year tenure the law school’s ranking rose in the US News & World Report from the bottom tier into the top 100.

State Bar Court Judge Yvette Roland has 90 days from when the matter is submitted to issue a decision. Roland’s ruling can be appealed to the State Bar Court Hearing Department, which acts as an appellate court. The California Supreme Court will make the final call on Eastman’s discipline, including disbarment.

The court and parties are working out additional trial days to complete testimony and arguments. “I’m not going to go after Nov. 3,” Roland said Wednesday. The trial began June 20 with hearing dates stretching over seven weeks.

The Office of Chief Trial Counsel represents the bar. Miller Law Associates APC represents Eastman.

The case is In Re Eastman, Cal. State Bar, No. SBC-23-O-30029, hearing 10/19/23.