Attorney John Eastman, who represented the Trump campaign in its legal challenge to the presidential election results in Pennsylvania, was forced to resign from his position as a law professor at Chapman University in California last week.
Eastman, a prominent conservative legal scholar, has reportedly come under attack from the left for defending the Trump campaign. Left-wing radicals were particularly irritated when he spoke alongside President Trump at a “Stop the Steal” rally in Washington, D.C., on Jan. 6. The “Stop the Steal” rally was still taking place at the other end of the Washington Mall during the violence that occurred in the U.S. Capitol during the confirmation of the presidential election results in each state. There is no evidence that Eastman or President Trump spoke at the rally in any way that was illegal.
However, Chapman University President Daniele Struppa was quick to denounce Eastman’s involvement in constitutionally protected free speech actions. In a Jan. 8 statement, he accused Eastman of “playing a role in the tragic events in Washington, D.C., that have jeopardized our democracy.
“Eastman’s actions are in direct opposition to the values and beliefs of our university. His personal actions have now publicly degraded Chapman University, and for that reason many have called my failure to punish and fire him a failure,” Strupa wrote.
Strupa added, “What (happened) this week also shows that this country has a great deal of work to do in the area of social justice and equity.”
On Jan. 13, Strupa announced that he had reached a settlement with Eastman and that he would be leaving “immediately.
Strupa wrote that Eastman’s departure “closes a challenging chapter for Chapman University and provides the most direct and clear path forward for the Chapman community and Dr. Eastman.”
He wrote, “Chapman University and Dr. Eastman have agreed not to pursue any form of legal action, including any defamation charges that may now exist. The university is unable to comment on confidential personal matters and will not make further statements on the matter.”
In a statement released the next day, Eastman accused members of the university’s board of trustees of making “false and defamatory statements about me without even politely contacting me in advance to discuss them.”
Eastman wrote, “If they were unwilling to discuss the matter with me, they could have known that every statement I made was supported by documentary and/or expert evidence and had a solid legal basis.”
Eastman’s lawsuit is one of several high-profile legal challenges filed by the Trump campaign and Trump supporters against the election results in several states and is still pending in the high court. Just a week before the presidential inauguration, the federal Supreme Court on Jan. 11 denied a request to expedite hearings in the cases.
In an interview, Eastman said briefly, “I can’t talk about the agreement other than my statement and the university’s statement …… but, yes, I think there was retaliation.”
The media revealed that one of the actions of the Lincoln Project, a super PAC created by anti-Trump Republicans, was to harass lawyers who provided legal services to the Trump campaign.
Last November, the Lincoln Project pledged to spend at least $500,000 on an ad campaign against the law firms of Jones Day and Porter Wright Morris and Arthur for defending Trump and the Pennsylvania Republican Party, according to a legal publication.
The Lincoln Project manhunted the lawyers of the two firms and made their LinkedIn pages public on Twitter, along with the names and contact information of the lawyers who helped Trump.
Attorney Cleta Mitchell was ousted from the partnership’s law firm, Foley and Lardner, as a result of the Lincoln Project’s actions.
The New York State Bar Association is currently considering disbarring Trump attorney and former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani. The left also said they may urge disciplinary action against pro-Trump attorneys Sidney Powell and Lin Wood.
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