Attorney John Eastman, the architect of a legal strategy aimed at keeping former President Donald Trump in power, climbs out of an SUV to speak to reporters after a hearing in Los Angeles, Tuesday, June 20, 2023.
Jae C. Hong | AP
Attorney John Eastman pleaded not guilty Friday in the Arizona case, accusing him and other allies of former President Donald Trump of crimes related to their attempt to overturn his 2020 election loss in the state to President Joe Biden.
Eastman is the first of 18 defendants in the case to be arraigned in state court in Phoenix.
The indictment of the other defendants, including former Trump House chief of staff Mark Meadows and former Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani, is scheduled for the coming weeks.
Eastman, Meadows, Giuliani and more than a dozen others – including Trump – are being charged separately in a Georgia court with crimes related to their efforts there to reverse Trump’s defeat in 2020.
Enlarge symbolArrows point outwards
Mugshot of Donald Trump’s former lawyer John Eastman for Arizona’s “Fake Electors.”
Courtesy: Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office
“I just had an appearance and an arraignment on allegations that I believe should never have been made,” Eastman said outside court Friday.
“Of course I didn’t plead guilty. “I have had no communication with Arizona voters and have not been involved in any Arizona election process or legislative hearings,” Eastman said. “And I am confident that if the law is faithfully applied, I will be fully exonerated at the end of this process.”
Last month, an Arizona grand jury indicted Eastman and others.
In December 2020, eleven Trump supporters claimed to be Arizona’s Electoral College voters and attempted to cast their vote for Trump even though Biden had won the state.
Trump himself is not charged in the indictment, but he is described in it as “Unindicted Co-Conspirator 1.”
In March, a California judge recommended that Eastman be disbarred in that state for actions related to the aftermath of the 2020 election, including plotting to get then-Vice President Mike Pence to overturn Electoral College votes cast for Biden from several swing states confirm that Trump lost.
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2024-05-17 18:31:09
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