UPDATE: John Eastman searched and had phone seized by federal agents last week, he says

[BumRushDaShow]

Source: CNN

(CNN) The FBI seized the phone of former President Donald Trump's election attorney John Eastman last week, according to a new court filing from the lawyer. Eastman disclosed the search and seizure in federal court in a lawsuit that he filed in New Mexico on Monday, calling it improper.

About six federal investigators approached the right-wing lawyer in New Mexico when he was exiting a restaurant after dinner with his wife and a friend, according to the court filings. Agents were able to get access to Eastman's email accounts on his iPhone 12 Pro, the filings said.

Eastman is the latest person whose communications have become part of extensive Justice Department investigations related to January 6. Eastman contends the agents "forced" him to unlock his phone. A seizure warrant document included in Eastman's filing noted any electronic devices agents seized were to be sent to Washington, DC, or the Justice Department inspector general's forensic lab in northern Virginia.

Eastman is asking a federal judge to force the Justice Department to return his property, destroy records it has obtained and block investigators from being allowed to access the phone.

Read more: https://www.cnn.com/2022/06/27/politics/john-eastman-search-phone-january-6/index.html

---

Damn. I put an updated CNN app on the iPad and set the alerts and it's been going off all this afternoon.

Original article -

(CNN)The FBI seized the phone of former President Donald Trump's election attorney John Eastman last week, according to a new court filing from the lawyer.

Eastman disclosed the search and seizure in federal court in a lawsuit that he filed in New Mexico on Monday, calling it improper. About six federal investigators approached the right-wing lawyer in New Mexico when he was exiting a restaurant after dinner with his wife and a friend, according to the court filings.

Agents were able to get access to Eastman's email accounts on his iPhone 12 Pro, the filings said. Eastman is the latest person whose communications have become part of extensive Justice Department investigations related to January 6.

Eastman contends the agents "forced" him to unlock his phone. A seizure warrant document included in Eastman's filing noted any electronic devices agents seized were to be sent to Washington, DC, or the Justice Department inspector general's forensic lab in northern Virginia.

This story is breaking and will be updated.

NYT finally wrote up their version as a breaking -

Federal Agents Seized Phone of John Eastman, Key Figure in Jan. 6 Plan



John Eastman appears on video during House Select Committee hearings last week.Credit...Mandel Ngan/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images


By Alan Feuer
June 27, 2022, 6:06 p.m. ET


Federal agents armed with a search warrant have seized the phone of John Eastman, a lawyer who advised former President Donald J. Trump on a key element of the effort to overturn the results of the 2020 election, according to court filing by Mr. Eastman on Monday. The filing, a motion to recover property from the government, said that F.B.I. agents in New Mexico, acting on behalf of the Department of Justice’s Office of the Inspector General, stopped Mr. Eastman as he was leaving a restaurant last Wednesday and seized his iPhone.

A copy of the warrant included as an exhibit in Mr. Eastman’s filing said that the phone would be taken to the inspector general’s forensic lab in Northern Virginia. The seizure of Mr. Eastman’s phone is the latest evidence that the Justice Department is intensifying its criminal investigation into the various strands of Mr. Trump’s efforts to remain in power after he was defeated for re-election.

Mr. Eastman, a California law professor, helped develop and promote a plan to justify having Vice President Mike Pence block or delay certification of the Electoral College results showing Joseph R. Biden Jr.’s victory in the 2020 election. Mr. Trump and Mr. Eastman pressured Mr. Pence to put the plan in action when Mr. Pence presided over a joint session of Congress on Jan. 6, 2021.

Mr. Pence’s refusal to go along helped fuel the violence that overwhelmed the Capitol that day and became a bloody symbol of Mr. Trump’s efforts to subvert the outcome of the election. Mr. Eastman was also instrumental in advising Mr. Trump to create purported slates of electors backing Mr. Trump in key swing states won by Mr. Biden.

(snip)

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/06/27/us/politics/john-eastman-jan-6.html

[greatauntoftriplets]

1. ...

[pfitz59]

2. Send him to prison

Seditious fuck

[Shrike47]

3. I assume he's smart enough to have changed phones since 1/6.

Or at least since last week.

[agingdem]

4. I doubt it..

he's still waiting for that pardon

[erronis]

8. If he was smart at all, he wouldn't have anything to do with this crime group.

No, Eastman was a sucker who was made into a huckster by the orange scent of power.

So many in that realm were scammed, but easily. Scary how people that have decent education and probably a lot more wealth than 99% of us can be sucked in.

[msfiddlestix]

38. if he wasn't smart enough to do something as obvious as that basic precaution brfore last week..

that's like a year and half since j6...

wel gosh, there's just so much that can be said withouth being redundant.

but according to the excerpts, it appears the Feds were able to obtain emails etc,

facepalming stupid these people are. I don't see the need to slow down charging/prosecutions.

[LiberalFighter]

7. If he is innocent what is he worried about?

[FakeNoose]

11. If Eastman is innocent, why did he ask Chump for a pardon?

[mobeau69]

9. So how did the FBI "force" him to unlock it! Anxious for more on this.

Could this be related to the surprise hearing?

Very interesting.

[BumRushDaShow]

13. It might be too soon to have details on this stuff

And welcome to the Van Gough club!

[mobeau69]

17. Read the warrant. It covered biometrics required to unlock the device.

I’m too old to read and study all that crap. In my younger days I enjoyed wading through anything like it but now I don’t. Priorities change as you get older.

[BumRushDaShow]

18. The updated article mentioned the biometrics

so expect it could have been a fingerprint one (which is easier - I have the same model iPhone which also has an option for facial recognition biometric unlocking).

[mobeau69]

19. Yeah, it covered that to. Some affidavit wasn't attached to the warrant so his lawyer is making a

stink over that. Hopefully not a big deal.

[BumRushDaShow]

22. The lawyers are gonna file for whatever reason they can find

'cause that's what they (especially in Eastman's case) get paid the big bucks to do!

[LetMyPeopleVote]

12. Add John Eastman to the list of DOJ/FBI's search warrants last Wednesday.

Eastman wants his phone back

Link to tweet

[YoshidaYui]

14. Good!

[Evolve Dammit]

15. "The phone"?? Most seditionists rarely have less than 4, a pc, tablet, Cloud storage and encrypted.

Hope they didn't get a burner.

[BumRushDaShow]

20. Post #12 has a tweet with a snapshot of his complaint

and it indicated that they took his iPhone 12 Pro and rest assured that a $1000+ phone ain't a "burner" (although I suppose the SIM could be ).

[Evolve Dammit]

23. I just wonder if he had that one 18 months ago?

[BumRushDaShow]

26. I bought mine when it released in October 2020

I was on Sprint and since they had recently been bought by T-Mobile, I had them put a T-Mobile SIM in it since the phone was 5G compatible. I was upgrading from an iPhone 6+. So the model was definitely around 18 months ago!

[Evolve Dammit]

30. Here's hoping it has all his plotting, scheming and more!

[BumRushDaShow]

31. LOL

They can maybe see what mobile communication/social media apps he has and who he was communicating with in order to add more to the conspiracy.

[Evolve Dammit]

37. Things are finally coming to light.

[Cheezoholic]

21. Iphone Pro 12 according to his filing

Its standard practice when serving electronic seizure warrants to force those served to unlock their equipment, especially Iphones, which are notoriously difficult to unlock without Apples assistance. He could have other phones and or accounts not on that phone but most of these idiots aren't savvy enough to understand the breadcrumb trail on personal devices unless they had a complete separate digital identity where they did dirty work for years into the past.

Id say DOJ had a good chance of scoring some good stuff off of that device. Net Neutrality bullshit biting them in the ass lmao.

[ultralite001]

16. They're going after...

Ginni Thomas... and company...

That is all...

[Evolve Dammit]

24. So get her phone(s) and Clarence's . Does anyone think they weren't in contact?

[EndlessWire]

39. Ginni was in contact with both

Meadows and Eastman. What was she in contact with those Trump sycophants for? She is/was a political activist pushing for Fake Electors. They have all been found out. Now we need to get them.

And, who still thinks that Clarence did not know?

[SayItLoud]

25. Burner phones.

The entire tRUMP crime family knows about them and has/had them.

[BumRushDaShow]

27. The iPhone 12 Pro ain't no "burner"

He may have the burners back at his house.

[sinkingfeeling]

28. If they had a warrant, on what grounds is he suing?

[summer_in_TX]

29. Ha! Facial recognition, which I'd guess he uses,

could be activated by holding the iPhone to his face.

I switched to facial recognition after finding out the hard way that as one ages often one's fingerprints disappear. I found I had to punch in my passcode all the time rather than relying on my fingerprint.

He's old enough to have the same issue I had with fingerprints. Bet it was easy to get in that iPhone.

[BumRushDaShow]

33. He's just a couple years older than me

and I have the finger print one enabled and haven't had any problem with it (either with my old iPhone 6 or the newer 12 Pro).

The facial one seems too creepy and I remember when Apple indicated they had to really work on fixing the software to recognize people if they were masked for covid.

And then there is that "swipe" method of unlocking, but IMHO, that might be a millennial thing.

[mahatmakanejeeves]

32. Here's the warrant.

AnyAndAllThingsHat Retweeted

UPDATE: I hadn't seen the warrant itself when I wrote the above thread, but via
@popehat
, it is here:
https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.nmd.476086/gov.uscourts.nmd.476086.1.1.pdf

Link to tweet

[BumRushDaShow]

34. Thanks!

I am surprised that the last page of that release (am guessing it was from a FOI request) wasn't redacted for the phone's identifying info.

[The Jungle 1]

35. So they got his phone last week.

This week the J6 commission is having a special session. Hummmmmm

[BumRushDaShow]

36. I may be wrong but

I expect that during the period of "all the public drama in the news" between the J6 Committee and DOJ about "work product", actual things were being shared, and DOJ was able to get a seizure warrant (in this case for Eastman, in NM) where whatever they gather from that, will be used in the grand jury empaneled for the investigation (most likely one in D.C.).