Judge orders former Chapman professor to prove Trump hired him

[Demovictory9]

federal judge in Santa Ana Monday ruled that former Chapman University law professor John Eastman must show proof he was hired by former President Donald Trump if he wishes to continue asserting claims of attorney-client privilege regarding his emails on the university's server.

U.S. District Judge David O. Carter set a schedule for attorneys to file written arguments regarding Eastman's claims of attorney-client privilege that would shield some emails sought by the congressional committee investigating the Jan. 6 insurrection at the Capitol.


Attorneys for the Jan. 6 select committee filed a motion on Friday saying Eastman has not responded to multiple requests for proof that the law professor was hired by Trump in a capacity that would allow him to assert attorney-client privilege. Without that proof, the committee argues in the motion, Eastman should not be allowed to assert the privilege and prevent the committee members access to the emails from the days leading up to and after the riots.

Eastman has sued the congressional committee to block Chapman University from releasing the emails. U.S. District Judge David O. Carter last month rejected Eastman's temporary restraining order request, clearing the way for the attorneys to go over the emails to determine what should remain secret and which ones can be sent to the committee.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/judge-orders-former-chapman-professor-to-prove-trump-hired-him/ar-AATRkHm

[lisa58]

1. He needs a retainer agreement....

Signed with a sharpie

[Demovictory9]

2. with orange makeup stains

[denbot]

3. Written on the back of one of Rudy's bar napkins.

[exboyfil]

4. Each of you put a dollar in my pocket

[tclambert]

5. Can he prove Trump paid him? Oh, wait, Trump never pays, does he?

[monkeyman1]

6. trump don't like paper trail's ! this should be fun !

[wnylib]

13. Yes, it's one time when his mob tactics backfire on him.

[PJMcK]

7. Eastman is apparently a pretty stupid lawyer

First, he threw his lot in with Trump. WTF.

Then he claims a professional representation of Trump. We all know that this judge's order-- that Eastman has to prove the professional relationship with Trump-- is going to show that Eastman was acting on his own and cannot prove he was Trump attorney.

Here's the kicker: Apparently, Eastman used his Chapman University email account for much (if not all) of his communications regarding Trump. This is illegal as it violates the University's 501(c)(3) status. The school's resources cannot be used for political purposes. I think this means that no matter what, Eastman doesn't own his emails, the University does.

Eastman is an idiot. His theory of how elections can work is flawed. His fealty to Trump is self-destructive. His apparent understanding of the law is incorrect. It'll be mildly satisfying to see this smug, arrogant fool get tossed under the bus and possibly sanctioned for his un-American and treasonous acts.

[Demovictory9]

8. ..and a liar if he can't prove he was hired by trump

[malaise]

9. This is what I don't get

How did he think he could get away with this?
Stupid is kind.

[PJMcK]

10. Trump's team is as arrogant as they are stupid

Eastman, Giuliani, Powell, etc. are profoundly bad lawyers. They believe their own hype. They also believe in their own invincibility. Boy, are they in for some surprises!

Still, consider this thought. If Trump's coup had succeeded, these soon-to-be ex-lawyers would be protected as would Trump. If Trump remained in office, all of his foot soldiers would be covered by Trump's umbrella.

Thankfully, our Constitution held fast. This time, at least.

This is why it is critical that all of Trump's crimes and schemes have to be revealed for all the world to see. It's the only way the U.S. can survive.

[sanatanadharma]

11. I remember the hubris of Bush's PNAC peoples' plans

The hubris of today's always-wrong right is off the charts.

BTW, the new American century was postponed by Trump'; glory is only a few weeks away, I say.

[wnylib]

14. They expected to win and be in control.

Never anticipated losing and being investigated.

[malaise]

15. Then they are clueless about the system

which is beyond stupid

[wnylib]

18. So true.

[LiberalFighter]

16. Very good points made. My initial view was he should not use university email for

non-university purposes. Especially non-related business. The political part is good.

Eastman knows absolutely nothing about election law pertaining to conducting elections.

[inthewind21]

21. That rings true

With ANY email account you don't own. That's why divorce attorneys (mine included) tell you right away to NOT use a work or any type of business email. Create one for strictly attorney client use with gmail, yahoo etc. Because those can't be subpoenaed. Employers/business emails can. Funny story, my ex husband used a private email. Or so he thought. It was the email set up though a domain for a potential business we were looking at setting up years ago. Ummmmm. I'm half owner. So yeah, I granted my attorney permission to get any and ALL emails from email address ...

[PRETZEL]

12. I also thought I read or heard

that a lot of these communications were done on Chapman U's email address?

If so, do those communications belong to Chapman or Eastman?

[obamanut2012]

17. It depends on their policies

Where I work, we are 100% transparent if we use work email -- everything is considered discoverable and accessible.

[LetMyPeopleVote]

19. This will be fun to watch

[AnnetteChaffee]

20. I had the proof Your Honor...

but [the dog] ate it....er, flushed it... it's taped up around here somewhere Judge....

[Picaro]

22. There a lot of bad lawyers

there are a lot of bad lawyers out there. But Trump seems to have provided an irresistible attraction to the worst of them.

Michael Cohen, Rudy Giuliani, Sidney Powell, Lin Wood, John Eastman. They’re all not only bad lawyers but they’re fucking crazy too.

watching these stupid fuckers turn themselves inside out trying to prove the unprovable is an absolute delight at times but it is really horrifying in other ways.

This carnival of incompetence was just a hair away from being able to overthrow the elected government of the United States.

With absolute hindsighit it has become apparent that our Constitution is not some sort of brilliant document but a piece of paper that has such huge holes in it that you could drive a truck through most of them. When you have a supreme court that deliberately misinterpret things and creates law out of thin air we are in an incredibly dangerous situation.

But hell we didn’t even need the constitution to be filled with holes.

We have a situation where the Senate, who can determine their own rules, decided to create something called the filibuster back in the mists of time. We are now in a state of almost complete paralysis due to this extra constitutional frill that was put into our government.

Sometimes I think we’re gonna get out of this and look back and maybe do some of the things we need to do to make it better.

And then other times I lose all hope because the general population of the United States is incredibly ignorant and don’t know what’s going on for the most part.

You can’t really run a democracy with an ignorant population.

Someone else on this site just posted what people think are the top things to worry about and number one on the list is inflation. Not civil rights, not racism, not wealth disparity, not the complete paralysis of the American government… No they think inflation is the number one problem.

Jesus Mary Joseph it’s hard to fight stupidity like that.