Eastman Judge Denies His Bid to Pause Law License Suspension

Donald Trump attorney John Eastman’s attempt to lift his suspension from practicing law in California was rejected on Wednesday, because he failed to show that he no longer presents a threat to the public.

State Bar Court Judge Yvette Roland wrote that Eastman’s disbarment was to “safeguard the public” after finding he made deceptive, false claims about the electoral process for the 2020 presidential election.

“Despite his clients’ desire for Eastman to continue representing them, based on the gravity of Eastman’s transgressions, particularly those involving moral turpitude, and the increased likelihood of future misconduct due to his refusal to acknowledge any wrongdoing, there is insufficient evidence to justify a stay of his involuntary inactive enrollment,” Roland wrote.

The former Chapman University law professor was put on inactive enrollment shortly after Roland recommended his disbarment last month. The California Supreme Court will make the final determination, but it’s highly unlikely that the state’s top court will depart from Roland’s suggestion.

Eastman’s comments after Trump lost the 2020 US presidential election—particularly the attorney’s assertion that then-Vice President Mike Pence could delay counting 2020 presidential election electoral votes—held “reckless disregard for the truth,” Roland said in her 128-page ruling.

Before the state’s top court acts on Roland’s recommendation, Eastman plans to appeal his case to the State Bar Court’s Review Department, a process that will likely take about a year to conclude.

A prominent conservative legal scholar, Eastman was one of the former president’s advocates as Trump sought to overturn the election results. He was in the Jan. 6, 2021 rally at the Ellipse in front of the White House, where Trump’s supporters were urged to march on the US Capitol during that presidential election’s vote count.

Eastman, Trump, former New York City mayor and prosecutor Rudolph Giuliani, and others were indicted in August by Fulton County, Ga., prosecutor Fani Willis over efforts to overturn Trump’s 2020 defeat in Georgia. All three men have pleaded not guilty.

Eastman had argued in court filings April 3 that the suspension threatens his ability to make a living while he faces what could amount to $3 million in legal fees for his defense against criminal charges of election interference in Georgia. He wrote that his clients still want him to represent them.

The State Bar’s Office of Chief Trial Counsel responded in court filings that a suspension is legally mandatory for anyone recommended to be disbarred in California. His suspension wasn’t based on client complaints, but based on a “significant threat of harm to the public and the administration of justice,” the office wrote.

Miller Law Associates APC represents Eastman.

The case is In re Eastman, Cal. State Bar, No. SBC-23-O-30029-YDR, opinion 5/1/24