Legal theories advanced by California lawyer John Eastman influenced the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol by supporters of then-president Donald Trump, a former lawyer for then-Vice President Mike Pence said on Wednesday.
The remarks from Greg Jacob, an O’Melveny & Myers partner who served as Pence’s counsel from 2020 to 2021, came on the second day of an attorney disciplinary trial against Eastman in Los Angeles.
Eastman is fighting to keep his law license after being accused by the State Bar of California of misleading courts and making false public statements about voter fraud in the 2020 election. He has denied any misconduct.
Jacob testified that the Trump supporters who gathered at the Capitol on Jan. 6 believed Pence could use his role as president of the Senate to tilt the outcome of the 2020 election. Trump, echoing Eastman’s theories, had pressured Pence to block congressional certification of Biden’s victory.
“The reason that they were there, the reason that they were angry, and the reason they were demanding that action be taken, was they believed that there was a momentous decision to make in the building that day,” Jacob said.
Both Pence and Jacob believed the vice president did not have the authority to refuse to accept electoral votes from several swing states, Jacob said.
Eastman, a former law professor at Chapman University in California, wrote legal memos suggesting Pence did have that power. Eastman also spoke at a rally outside the White House on Jan. 6 where he made unsubstantiated claims of election fraud.
Eastman’s attorney Randall Miller has said his client’s legal theories are viable and advanced in good faith. Eastman on Tuesday faced more than two hours of sharp questioning from state bar prosecutors and is expected to testify again later.
Miller asked Jacob if anyone who participated in the Jan. 6 riot had spoken with him and cited Eastman by name. Jacob answered no.
Jacob on Wednesday recounted various meetings and communications he had with Eastman in the run-up to and after the Jan. 6 attack.
As Trump supporters assaulted the Capitol, Jacob emailed Eastman saying no judge would endorse his legal strategy for overturning Trump’s election defeat, adding: “And thanks to your bullshit, we are now under siege.”
Jacob testified that as he waited in a secured area of the Capitol during the riot, he drafted an op-ed stating that a “cadre of outside lawyers to the president spun a web of lies and disinformation, to him and to the public” about Pence’s role in certifying the 2020 election.
“I was offended for my profession,” Jacob said about the op-ed. It was unpublished until October 2021, when the Washington Post published it as part of its own story on Eastman.
Eastman faces 11 counts of attorney ethics violations. His disciplinary trial, which started Tuesday before Judge Yvette Roland in California State Bar Court, is expected to last two weeks.