John Eastman’s disbarment proceedings
“Hundreds of ordinary people have been convicted of attacking the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, yet not one member of Trump’s inner circle of coup-plotters has faced real accountability for it,” Greg Sargent writes this morning in the Washington Post. That may soon change for attorney John Eastman who pleaded the Fifth Amendment over 100 times during questioning by House Jan. 6 committee. Accountability for Eastman remains professional, for now. He faces disbarment in California:
Eastman faces 11 charges from the California State Bar, most concerning his lawyerly lies about election fraud. Importantly, the bar also accused Eastman of advising Vice President Mike Pence that a fabricated legal rationale empowered him to reverse or delay the presidential electoral count in Congress.
“No reasonable attorney with expertise in constitutional or election law would conclude that Pence was legally authorized to take the actions that respondent proposed,” the bar states in its charges. It adds that Eastman knew those actions would violate the law and the Constitution.
If Eastman is disbarred for that charge, it would be genuinely novel. When fellow coup-plotter Rudy Giuliani had his law license suspended in New York last year, it was for the conventional charge of making false statements as a lawyer. Eastman, by contrast, would be sanctioned for corrupting the law to try to subvert our constitutional order and help usurp the presidency.
Eastman and others may yet face criminal indcitment. Even Donald Trump. “But that’s hardly guaranteed,” Sargent explains.
Elite accountability in this country is at a crossroads. Many of the coup-plotters have skated, and though Trump faces prosecution for hoarding classified documents, he might evade accountability for the insurrection. Tucker Carlson’s propaganda about Jan. 6 helped topple the cable host from his Fox News perch, but Elon Musk has created a safe space for his disinformation to continue. Dogged journalism has produced extraordinary revelations about corrupt Supreme Court justices, but Congress’s refusal to place checks on them only reinforces the sense that our elites operate with impunity.
Perhaps someone with entrepreneurial bones will sell “Please be patient, Jack Smith is not finished investigating yet” bracelets if they can squeeze on the acronym. But Pollyannish optimism is a poor substitute for equal justice under law that seems in these United States all the more elusive as economic inequality sinks broader, deeper roots.
Same as it ever was, same as it ever was
Same as it ever was, same as it ever was
Same as it ever was, same as it ever was
Same as it ever was, same as it ever was