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Last week, federal agents confiscated the cell phone of John Eastman, a lawyer who pushed false claims that mass election fraud contaminated the 2020 election and urged President Donald Trump and other Republicans to block Joe Biden from become president.
Eastman’s attorney, Charles Burnham, filed documents Monday in New Mexico’s federal court asking a judge to order the cell phone to be returned to Eastman. He was confiscated according to a search warrant when he left a restaurant on Wednesday, a day when federal agents across the country handed out subpoenas, executed search warrants and interviewed witnesses in a significant expansion of the criminal investigations around January 6, 2021. attack.
That same day, federal agents conducted a search of the Northern Virginia home of Jeffrey Clark, a former Justice Department official whom Trump considered appointing to head the department because he was willing to push for a plan to invalidate the results. elections in some key states.
Both Clark and Eastman played a crucial role in Trump’s efforts in late 2020 and early 2021 to convince state lawmakers in about half a dozen states to replace the voters Biden had won with voters for Trump. In theory, this replacement would have kept Trump in the White House.
With the echoes of Watergate, Trump nominees describe the push to cancel the election, keep him in office
Monday’s court documents also suggest the Department of Justice inspector general has become a plaintiff in criminal investigations around Jan. 6, because Eastman says his phone was picked up by FBI agents. acting on behalf of the Inspector General. A spokeswoman for the inspector general declined to comment. Burham did not immediately respond to an email asking for more information about the confiscation.
The Inspector General is an independent body responsible for eliminating waste, fraud and abuse within the Department of Justice. IG’s investigations examine the conduct of current or former department officials, and the role of the office in this case suggests that it may be reviewing the contents of Eastman’s phone as part of a criminal investigation into Clark or others. who worked in the department.
In court documents requesting the return of his phone, Eastman argues that since he was never an employee of the Justice Department, he is “outside the jurisdiction of the OIG.”
Court documents say that when Eastman asked to see the order, the request was denied. He was cached, had his iPhone removed and was “forced to provide biometric data to open” the phone, the file says.
This claim may become a matter of dispute, as your phone order explicitly states that you may be asked to provide a password or biometric data voluntarily, but that you may not be required to provide this information.
The order also suggests that federal prosecutors are prepared for a legal fight over the contents of the phone, because it contains a provision that its contents will not be seen immediately by the investigation team.
The January 6 criminal investigation appears to be expanding with a new round of citations, search warrants
In his own document, Eastman notes that his phone contains “emails that have been the subject of an intense five-month privilege dispute between [himself] and the Select Committee of the U.S. House of Representatives to investigate the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol. “The court record also notes that a California federal judge previously ruled that some of Eastman’s emails they are “protected by the freedom of association of the First Amendment, by the privilege of lawyer-client and / or by the doctrine of the labor product.”
Eastman’s role before Jan. 6 and its aftermath has been a key focus of this committee, which has scheduled a hearing for Tuesday afternoon with a witness or witnesses not yet announced.
Although an angry violent mob looted the U.S. Capitol, trying to prevent lawmakers from counting the election votes made by President Biden, Eastman continued to argue his case to annul the election results, according to an exchange email that day. After Pence was escorted out of the Senate for his own safety, a Pence aide, Greg Jacob, sent Eastman a furious email.
“Thanks to your bull —-, we’re harassed now,” Jacob wrote, according to Eastman.
What was happening at the Capitol “is because YOU and your boss did not do what was necessary to allow this to be broadcast publicly so that the American people could see for themselves what happened,” Eastman wrote in Jacob, in reference to Trump’s allegations of election fraud.
Electronic devices from former DOJ official Jeffrey Clark arrested while on the street in pajamas
Eastman sent the email when Pence, who had presided over the Senate, was on guard with Jacob and other advisers in a safe area. The rioters were breaking into the Capitol complex, some of them demanding that Pence be executed.
The Jan. 6 committee has also revealed that in a post-Jan. 6 email, Eastman wrote to former Trump attorney Rudy Giuliani saying, “I have decided I should be on the pardon list, if is still in process “. The committee has issued testimony from other witnesses indicating that at least five Republican members of Congress apologized to the president in the final days of his presidency. None of them were pardoned, nor have they been charged with a crime.
The January 6 insurrection
The select committee of the House investigating the January 6, 2021 uprising is holding a series of high-profile hearings this month. Find the latest here.
Hearings in Congress: The House committee investigating the attack on the U.S. Capitol has conducted more than 1,000 interviews over the past year. He is sharing his findings in a series of hearings starting June 9th. Here’s what we know about audiences and how to view them.
The riot: On January 6, 2021, a pro-Trump mafia stormed the U.S. Capitol in an attempt to stop certification of the results of the 2020 elections. Five people died that day or immediately thereafter, and 140 police officers were killed. attacked.
Inside the siege: During the riot, rioters came dangerously close to entering the building’s inner shrines while lawmakers were still there, including former Vice President Mike Pence. The Washington Post examined text messages, photos, and videos to create a video timeline of what happened on Jan. 6.
Charges: Proud Boys leader Enrique Tarrio and four lieutenants have been charged with seditious conspiracy, joining Oathkeepers leader Stewart Rhodes and about two dozen associates to be charged with their involvement in the attack on the Capitol. These are just a few of the hundreds who were charged, many of whom received substantially lighter punishments than those demanded by the government.