The Department of Justice (DOJ) said on Wednesday that it has obtained a warrant to search some of the contents of John Eastman’s phone.
Eastman, who was a former lawyer for President Donald Trump, was a key part of the plot to reverse the 2020 election. After the DOJ obtained a warrant for his phone, Eastman had to surrender it to them. However, an additional warrant was required by investigators. look at the phone’s data.
According to court filings from the DOJ this week the second warrant was issued July 12.
Although the warrant allows Eastman to access the data and phone calls made after the 2020 election, it does not give the DOJ complete access to the phone’s data. The department cannot examine communications with Trump that are protected by client-attorney privileges. will be blocked from viewing by investigators through a filter protocol.
Eastman, who is currently in New Mexico, tried to block the warrant. However, a federal judge in the State ruled against his objections.
In seeking to read the contents of Eastman’s phone, the DOJ “had to specify the crimes it has good cause to believe the contents will reveal,” according to Harvard Law School’s Laurence Tribe.
The investigation into Eastman’s actions is part of a large-scale DOJ inquiry into the events of January 6, 2021, as well as the wider attempt to overturn the 2020 election. It was reported earlier this week that Trump is now part of the investigation.
Eastman played a significant role in the scheme by Trump’s inner circle to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election, which was won by now-President Joe Biden. Eastman was the one who wrote a memo containing a six-point plan to stop the resultsThe plan consisted of recruiting Trump loyalists and creating fake elector votes in states that Biden had won, and then sending them back to Washington D.C. to participate in the certification process for the Electoral College. Then-Vice president Mike Pence would either consider the fake elector ballots legitimate or declare that there was enough confusion warranting sending the matter back to the House of Representatives. Trump would have been named president because the GOP has a majority state delegations in the House.
Pence ultimately refused to go along with the plan — and on January 6, after Trump sent a mob of his loyalists to the Capitol to disrupt the certification, Many chanted for Pence’s execution for his alleged betrayal of President Obama.
After the attack on the building Eastman emailed Rudy Giuliani, Trump’s then-personal lawyer, to ask if he could be included “on the pardon list, if that is still in the works.”
Eastman has not cooperated with any investigation into the plot to overturn or attack on the Capitol. Eastman was present at the January 6 committee. he invoked his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination throughout his deposition.
Some observers believe that Eastman may choose to cooperate with investigators in light of the recent warrant from the DOJ, however — particularly if he believes that cooperation will help him out of criminal liability or reduce a prison sentence.
“John Eastman is in many ways the linchpin of this investigation…if poor John Eastman could determine that he would be better off working with the Department of Justice than staying on Team Trump, that would be an immensely important step for the investigation,”
Paul Rosenzweig is an ex-attorney who investigated former President Bill Clinton. said on CNN Wednesday night.
